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Field Museum of Natural History 

Publication 184 

Anthropological Series Vol. XV, No. 1 



THE DIAMOND 

A STUDY IN CHINESE AND HELLENISTIC FOLK-LORE 



BY 



Berthold Laufer 

Curator of Anthropology 




Chicago 
1915 



fclufioaraph 



Field Museum of Natural History 

Publication 184 

Anthropological Series Vol. XV, No. 1 



THE DIAMOND 

A STUDY IN CHINESE AND HELLENISTIC FOLK-LORE 



BY 

Berthold Laufer 

Curator of Anthropology 




Chicago 
1915 



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CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Introductory 5 

Legend of the Diamond Valley 6 

Indestructibility of the Diamond 21 

Diamond and Lead 26 

The Diamond-Point 28 

Diamond and Gold 35 

The Term "Ku,n-wu" 38 

Toxicology of the Diamond 40 

Imitation Diamonds 41 

Acquaintance of the Ancients with the Diamond ... 42 

Cut Diamonds 46 

Acquaintance of the Chinese with the Diamond ... 50 

Stones of Nocturnal Luminosity 55 

Phosphorescence of Precious Stones 63 

Index 72 



THE DIAMOND 

A Study in Chinese and Hellenistic Folk-Lore 

Introductory. — Of all the wonders and treasures of the Hellenistic- 
Roman Orient, it was the large variety of beautiful precious stones that 
created the most profound and lasting impression on the minds of the 
Chinese. During the time of their early antiquity the number of gems 
known to them was exceedingly limited, and mainly restricted to certain 
untransparent, colored stones fit for carving; while the transparent 
jewel with its qualities of lustre, cut, polished, and set ready for wearing, 
was a matter wholly unknown to them. Only contact with Hellenistic 
civilization and with India opened their eyes to this new world, and 
together with the new commodities a stream of Occidental folk-lore 
poured into the valleys of China. That a chapter from a series of 
discussions devoted to Chinese-Hellenistic relations 1 is taken up by a 
detailed study of the history of the diamond, is chiefly because this 
very subject affords a most instructive example of the diffusion of 
classical ideas to the Farthest East. The mind of the Chinese offered 
a complete blank in this respect, being unacquainted with the diamond, 
and was therefore easily susceptible to the reception of foreign notions 
along this line. 2 India was the distributing-centre of diamonds to 
western Asia, Hellas and Rome, on the one hand, and to south-eastern 

1 Two other contributions along this line have thus far been published : The 
Story of the Pinna and the Syrian Lamb {Journal of American Folk-Lore, Vol. XXVIII, 
1915, pp. 103-128) and Asbestos and Salamander {T'oung Pao, 1915, pp. 297-371). 

2 Geerts (Les produits de la nature japonaise et chinoise, p. 201) stated in 1878 
that the diamond had not yet been found in China or Japan. Diamonds have been 
discovered in Shan-tung Province only during recent years (compare A. A. Fauvel, 
Les diamants chinois, Comptes-rendus Soc. de V Industrie minihe, 1899, pp. 271-281; 
Chinese Diamonds, Mines and Minerals, Vol. XXIII, 1902-03, p. 552). The late 
F. H. Chalfant (in the work Shantung, the Sacred Province of China, ed. by 
Forsyth, p. 346) gives this account: "Fifty-five li south-east of I-chou-fu lie the 
diamond fields. The stones are found on the low watershed between two streams, 
distributed through a very shallow soil over a reddish sandstone conglomerate. A 
determined effort was made by the same German company that operated the gold 
mine near I-chou, to develop the diamond field, but the enterprise was not a com- 
mercial success. It is the opinion of the German experts that the stones were 
deposited in their present position by the action of water at the time when, according 
to the theory, there was a connection between the two rivers. It is supposed that 
the source of the supply is somewhere in the mountains of Meng-yin. Meanwhile, 
diamonds, some of them of very good quality, are constantly picked up at the locality 
described and occasionally at other points." The mines were abandoned by the 



6 The Diamond 

Asia and China on the other hand. Nevertheless the ideas conceived 
by the Chinese regarding the diamond do not coincide with those enter- 
tained in India, but harmonize with those which we find expounded in 
classical literature. This fact is due to the direct importation of dia- 
monds from the Hellenistic Orient to China; but it has been entirely 
unknown heretofore, and this is another reason which will justify this 
investigation now made for the first time. Its significance lies not only 
in the field of Chinese research, but in that of classical archaeology as 
well. The copious and reliable accounts of Chinese authors advance our 
knowledge of the subject to a considerable degree beyond the point 
where the classical writers leave us, and elucidate several problems as 
yet unsettled. It will be seen on the pages to follow that the use of 
the diamond-point in the ancient world, doubted or disowned by many 
scholars, now becomes a securely-established fact, and also that the 
acquaintance of the ancients with the true diamond rises from the 
sphere of sceptical speculation into a certain and permanent fact. 
Likewise the much-ventilated question as to whether the ancients 
employed diamond-dust, and cut and polished the diamond, will be 
presented in a new light. 

Legend of the Diamond Valley. — The Liang se hung ki, 1 one of 
the most curious books of Chinese literature, contains the following 
account: "In the period T'ien-kien (502-520) of the Liang dynasty, 

Germans in 1907, as the diamonds proved to be of little value for gems, while answer- 
ing well for industrial purposes (Engineering and Mining Journal, Vol. LXXXIV, 
1907, p. 1 159). An anonymous writer in Mines and Minerals (Vol. XXIII, 1903, 
p. 552) reports as follows on Chinese diamond-digging: "The Chinese procure the 
diamonds by the following method: After the summer rains which, according to 
them, produce diamonds on the surface of the soil, whence the uselessness of digging 
to find them, they walk back and forth over the sand of the torrents. The fragments 
of diamonds, on account of their sharp points and edges, penetrate the rye straw of 
their sabots to the exclusion of other gravel. When they think there is a sufficient 
quantity they make a pile of the sabots and burn them. The ashes are afterwards 
passed through a sieve to separate the diamonds. Those which we saw were small, 
varying from the size of a grain of millet to that of a hemp seed. They are generally 
of a light-yellow color like those of the Cape, though there are some perfectly white. 
When they find them of sufficient size they break them, as they told us, in order to 
make drill points, for, not knowing how to cut them, the Chinese in general do not 
consider them as precious stones. They prefer the jade, the amethyst, the carnelian, 
and the agate. Only the rich Chinese of the ports and of Peking have bought cut 
diamonds, imported from India or Europe, to ornament their hats or their rings, 
since the Dutch first brought them into China in the sixteenth century. The 
Shan-tung collectors sell them throughout China, and their trade is of considerable 
importance." The exact date of this modern diamond-digging is not known to me, 
but it seems not to be earlier than the latter part of the nineteenth century. I can 
find no reference to it in Chinese literature. 

1 Or Liang se kung tse ki (see Bretschneider, Bot. Sin., pt. 1, No. 451), that is, 
Memoirs of the Four Worthies or Lords of the Liang Dynasty (502-556), who were 



Legend of the Diamond Valley 7 

Prince Kie of Shu (Sze-ch'uan) paid a visit to the Emperor Wu, 1 and, 
in the course of conversations which he held with the Emperor's scholars 
on distant lands, told this story: 'In the west, arriving at the Mediter- 
ranean, 2 there is in the sea an island of two hundred square miles (li). 
On this island is a large forest abundant in trees with precious stones, 
and inhabited by over ten thousand families. These men show great 
ability in cleverly working gems, 8 which are named for the country 
Fu-lin 4<$> ^v* In a northwesterly direction from the island is a ra- 
vine hollowed out like a bowl, more than a thousand feet deep. They 
throw flesh into this valley. Birds take it up in their beaks, whereupon 
they drop the precious stones. The biggest of these have a weight of 
five catties.' There is a saying that this is the treasury of the Devaraja 
of the Rupadhatu ^L^K*.-" 4 

From several points of view this text is of fundamental importance. 
First of all, it contains the earliest mention in Chinese records of the 
country Fu-lin, antedating our previous knowledge of it by a century. 

Huei-ch'uang, Wan-kie, Wei-t'uan, and Chang-ki; the work was written by Chang 
Yue (667-730), a statesman, poet, and painter of the T'ang period. The text trans- 
lated above is given in T'u shu tsi ch'dng, section on National Economy 321, chapter 
on Precious Commodities (pao huo); it is reprinted in the writer's Optical Lenses 
(Voting Paoy 1915, p. 204). 

1 He was the first emperor of the Liang dynasty and bore the name Siao Yen; he 
lived from 464 to 549. 

2 Literally, ' ' the Western Sea ' ' (Si hai) . Compare Hirth, The Mystery of Fu-lin 
II (Journal Am. Or. Soc, Vol. XXXIII, 1913, p. 195). 

'Literally, "implements or vessels of precious stones" (pao kH), among which 
also antique intaglios are presumably included. 

4 A Sanskrit-Buddhist term meaning "the Celestial King of the Region of 
Forms." Region of Forms is the second of the three Brahmanic worlds (trailokya). 
The detailed discussion of this subject on the part of O. Franke (Chinesische Tem- 
pelinschrift, Abhandl. preuss. Akad., 1907, pp. 47-50) is especially worth reading. 
There are four Celestial or Great Kings guarding the four quarters of the world, 
each posted on a side of the world-mountain Sumeru. The one here in question is 
Kubera or Vaicravana, the regent of the north and God of Wealth, the ruler of the 
aerial demons, called Yaksha. In earlier Buddhist art he is represented as standing 
on a Yaksha (see the writer's Chinese Clay Figures, pp. 297 et seq.); in later art he 
is figured holding in his right hand a standard and in his left an ichneumon (nakula) 
spitting jewels (compare A. Foucher, Bull, de VEcole frangaise, Vol. Ill, p. 655). 
This animal is known as the inveterate enemy of snakes; and snakes, in Indian belief, 
are the guardians of precious stones and other treasures. By devouring the snakes, 
the ichneumon (or, to use its Anglo-Indian name, mangoose) appropriates their 
jewels, and has hence developed into the attribute of Kubera. The reference to the 
Indian God of Wealth in the above text is, of course, not an element inherent in the 
story, as it was transmitted from Fu-lin, but an interpolation of the Chinese author 
prompted by a reflection regarding a tradition hailing from India. This Indian story 
has been recorded by him in another passage of the same work, and will be discussed 
farther on (p. 18). 



8 The Diamond 

Professor Hirth, a lifetime student of the complex Fu-lin problem, 1 
encountered the first notices of Fu-lin in the Annals of the Tang 
Dynasty, and an incidental reference to it in the Annals of the Sui 
Dynasty, written between 629 and 636, thus tracing the first appearance 
of the name to the first half of the seventh century. Chavannes 2 
called attention to a text written in 607, in which Fu-lin is mentioned, 
with reference to a passage translated by him from the Ts'e fu yuan 
kuei, where the name is written in the same manner as in our text 
above. 3 The latter distinctly relates to the period T'ien-kien (502-520) , 
and, further, is chronologically determined through the mention of 
the Liang Emperor Wu. Accordingly we are here confronted with the 
earliest allusion to the country Fu-lin in the beginning of the sixth 
century. The fact that the well-known Fu-lin discussed by Hirth and 
Chavannes, and no other, is involved in this passage, is evidenced by 
the very contents of the text, which, as will be demonstrated presently, 
harbors a tradition emanating from the Hellenistic Orient. It is notable 
that our text writes the second element of the name ^ instead of 
$4^, as the later documents do; it is obvious that a popular inter- 
pretation is intended here, the " forest" (tin) of the jewels being read 
into Fu-lin: as if it were " forest of Fu." This is not the place to 
revive the much-ventilated question of the etymology of this name, 
or to take sides with the interpretations proposed by Hirth and Cha- 
vannes; 4 but brief reference should be made to the recent theory of 
Pelliot, 5 according to whom the word Fu-lin is the product of the 
name Rom, prompted by a supposed intermediary form From, which 
issued from Armenian Hrom or Horom and Pahlavi Hrom. Pelliot 
thinks also that the name Fu-lin appears in China with certainty 
around 550, and that it is possibly still older, which perfectly har- 
monizes with the result obtained from the above text. 

The story about the capture of the precious stones is almost enig- 
matical in its terse brevity, but it at once becomes intelligible if we 
recognize it as an abridged form of a well-known Western legend. The 
oldest hitherto accessible version of it is contained in the writings of 

1 In his book China and the Roman Orient, and in his studies The Mystery of 
Fu-lin {Journal Am. Or. Soc, Vol. XXX, 1909, pp. 1-31; Vol. XXXIII, 1913, 
pp. 195-208). 

2 Toung Pao, 1904, p. 38. 

8 The same mode of writing occurs in Yu yang tsa tsu and in a poem of the T'ang 
Emperor T'ai-tsung (see P x ei wen yiinfu, Ch. 27, p. 25). 

4 The latter has developed the conflicting views of both sides in T'oung Pao, 
1913, P. 798. 

6 Journal asiatique (Mars-Avril, 1914), p. 498. 



Legend of the Diamond Valley 9 

Epiphanius, Bishop of Constantia in Cyprus (circa 31 5-403). * In his 
discourse on the twelve jewels forming the breastplate of the High 
Priest of Jerusalem, the following tale is narrated of the hyacinth. 
The theatre of action is a deep valley in a desert of great Scythia, entirely 
surrounded by rocky mountains rising straight like walls; so that from 
their summits the bottom of the valley is not visible, but only a sullen 
mist like chaos. The men despatched there in search of those stones 
by the kings, who reside in the neighborhood, slay sheep, strip them 
of their skins, and fling them from the rocks into the immense chaos 
of the valley. The stones then adhere to the flesh of the sheep. The 
eagles that loiter on the cliffs above scent the flesh, pounce down upon 
it in the valley, carry the carcasses off to devour them, and thus the 
stones remain On the top of the mountains. The convicts condemned 
to gather the stones go to the spots where the flesh of the sheep has 
been carried away by the eagles, find and take the stones. All these 
stones, whatever the diversity of their color, are of value as precious 
stones, but have this effect: that, when placed over a violent charcoal 
fire, they themselves are but slightly hurt, while the coal is instantly 
extinguished. This stone is reputed to be useful to women in aiding 
parturition; it is said also to dispel phantoms in a similar manner. 2 



1 Epiphanii opera, ed. Dindorf, Vol. IV, p. 190 (Leipzig, 1862). The text in 
question is reproduced also by J. Ruska (Steinbuch des Aristoteles, p. 15). 

2 The notion that the stones gathered by eagles aid in parturition rests on the 
belief of the ancients that the so-called aetites or "eagle-stone," found in the nests 
of eagles, possesses remarkable properties having this effect. According to Pliny (x, 
3, § 12 ; and xxxvi, 21, § 151), who distinguishes four varieties, this stone, so to speak, 
has the quality of being pregnant; for when shaken, another stone is heard to rattle 
within, as though it were enclosed in its womb. A male and a female stone are always 
found together; and without them, the eagles would be unable to propagate. Hence 
the young of the eagle are never more than two in number. Philostratus, in his 
Life of Apollonius from Tyana, notes that the eagles never build their nests without 
first placing there an eagle-stone (F. de Mely, Lapidaires grecs, p. 27). This stone 
is regarded as ferruginous geodes, a globular mass of clay iron-stone, which some- 
times is hollow, sometimes encloses another stone or a little water. According to 
the Physiologus (xix), the parturition-stone is found in India, whither the female 
vulture repairs to obtain it. From the Physiologus the story passed into the Arabic 
writers (J. Ruska, Steinbuch des Aristoteles, p. 165; Steinbuch des Qazwlni, 
pp. 18, 38; L. Leclerc, Traite des simples, Vol. I, pp. 121-123). O. Keller (Tiere 
des classischen Altertums, p. 269) regards the legend of the eagle-stone as Egyptian, 
because it is mentioned by Horapollo (11, 49); but his work Hieroglyphica belongs 
to the fourth century a.d., while even Theophrastus (De lapidibus, 5) speaks of 
parturient stones. It seems more plausible that, as intimated by the Physiologus, 
the story hails from India. The physician Razi, who died in 923 or 932, observes 
(Leclerc, I.e.) that he encountered in some books of India the statement that a 
woman is easily delivered when the stone is placed on her abdomen. Regarding 
similar notions in China compare F. de Mely, L'alchimie chez les Chinois {Journal 
asiatique, 1895, Sept.-Oct., p. 336) and Lapidaires chinois, p. lxiii. 



io The Diamond 

The coincidence of this tale with our Chinese text is striking, the 
chief points — the deep valley, the flesh thrown down as bait, the 
birds bringing up the stones with it — being identical. The coincidence 
is the more remarkable, as the subsequent additional features with 
which the legend has been embellished in the West are lacking in the 
Chinese version. For this reason the conclusion is justified that the 
latter, directly traceable to a version of the type of Epiphanius, was 
transmitted straightway to China, as revealed by the very words of 
the Chinese account, from Fu-lin, a part of the Roman Empire. 

In the second oldest Western version we encounter two new ele- 
ments, — Alexander the Great and snakes guarding the stones. The 
oldest Arabic work on mineralogy, wrongly connected with the name of 
Aristotle and composed before the middle of the ninth century, has 
the following under the " diamond:" 1 "Nobody but my disciple 
Alexander reached the valley in which diamonds are found. It lies 
in the east along the extreme frontier of Khorasan, and its bottom 
cannot be penetrated by human eyes. 2 Alexander, after having 
advanced thus far, was prevented from proceeding by a host of snakes. 
In this valley are found snakes which by gazing at a man cause his 
death. He therefore caused mirrors to be made for them; and when 
they thus beheld themselves, they perished, while Alexander's men 
could look at them. 3 Thereupon Alexander contrived another ruse: 
he had sheep slaughtered, skinned, and flung on the bottom of the 
valley. The diamonds adhered to the flesh. The birds of prey seized 
them and brought part of them up. The soldiers pursued the. birds 
and took whatever of their spoils they dropped." This account might 
lead us to suspect that the legend may have formed part of the Romance 
of Alexander, the archetype of which is preserved in the book known as 
that of Pseudo-Callisthenes, and produced at Alexandria in Egypt in 
the second century a.d. 4 In fact, however, it does not appear there, 
nor in any of the other early Western or Oriental cycles of the Alexander 
legends. The first Alexander legend in which it was incorporated is 

1 J. Ruska, Steinbuch des Aristoteles, p. 150. 

2 Almost identical with the phraseology of Epiphanius: " Ita ut signis desuper, a 
summitatibus montium tanquam de muris aspiciat solum convallis, pervidere non 
possit." 

3 A reminiscence of the basilisk, that hideous serpent-like monster described by 
Pliny (viii, 33). The mediaeval poets have the basilisk die when it beholds itself 
in a mirror (F. Lauchert, Geschichte des Physiologus, p. 186). < 

4 According to current opinion. A. Ausfeld (Der griechische Alexanderroman, 
p. 242, Leipzig, 1907), however, in his fundamental investigation of the Greek 
work, dates the oldest recension of Pseudo-Callisthenes with great probability in the 
second century B.C. 



Legend of the Diamond Valley ii 

the Iskander-ndmeh of the Persian poet Nizami (1141-1203); 1 here we 
likewise meet the snakes, and it is now clear that Aristotle's lapidarium 
was the source of Nizami's episode. 2 It is well known that in the Arabic 
stories of Sindbad the Sailor, Sindbad, deposited by the Rokh in the 
Diamond Valley, observes how merchants throw down flesh, which is 
carried upward by vultures (also Nizami speaks of vultures) together 
with the diamonds sticking to it; enveloped by this flesh, he is lifted 
in the same manner. 3 The gradual growth of the legend from the 
simple form in which Epiphanius had clothed it is interesting to follow. 
In the celebrated Arabic "Book of the Wonders of India," 4 written 
about a.d. 960, our legend is told by a traveller who had penetrated into 
the countries of India, and who localized it in Kashmir. He introduces 
a new element, — a fire constantly burning in the valley day and night, 

1 J. Ruska, Steinbuch des Aristoteles, p. 14. 

2 Qazwinl (1203-83) has the same story somewhat more amplified (J. Ruska, 
Steinbuch aus der Kosmographie des al-Qazwlnl, p. 35) ; but it is interesting that he 
communicates two versions of it, — one being a close adaptation of Aristotle's 
account, the other staged on Serendib (Ceylon) [where diamonds are not found] and 
not connected with the name of Alexander. It is obvious that the Arabic polyhistor, 
in his notice of the diamond, is reproducing two different sources, — the first being 
introduced by the words "Aristotle says;" the second, by the words "Another 
says." It is clear also that in this anonymous version the snakes are a purely inci- 
dental accessory which was lacking in the original text. "The mines are located in 
the mountains of Serendib, in a valley of great depth, in which there are deadly 
snakes." The snakes, however, are put out of commission in the capture of the 
diamonds, which is due to the action of the vultures; and in order to justify the in- 
troduction of the reptiles, it is added at the end that large stones have to remain in 
the valley, as it cannot be reached for fear of the snakes. This observation is not 
without value for tracing the origin and growth of the legend. It shows that the 
feature of the snakes, however tempting this suggestion of its Indian origin may be 
to a superficial judgment, was not conceived in India, but in the Arabic-Persian 
sphere of the Alexander legends, with the evident object of aggrandizing the exploits 
of the conqueror. Qazwinl's duplicity of versions is mirrored by Marco Polo 
(ed. of Yule and Cordier, Vol. II, pp. 360-361), who likewise offers two variants, — 
one with serpents, and another without them. The dependence of Qazwinl's story 
on that in Aristotle's lapidarium has already been recognized by E. Rohde (Der 
griechische Roman, p. 193, note, 3d ed., Leipzig, 19 14). Ruska is right in his con- 
clusion that the traditions concerning stones are relatively independent, and par- 
ticularly so from the Alexander cycle; many a story in its origin had no connection with 
Alexander, but was subsequently associated with him in the same manner as King 
Solomon became the centre of numerous legendary fabrics. This follows in particu- 
lar from the thorough investigation of A. Ausfeld (Der griechische Alexanderroman) , 
who devoted a lifetime of study to the Greek romance of Alexander, and in whose 
purified text, representing the oldest accessible version, these mineralogical fables 
do not appear. 

3 Compare also Benjamin of Tudela, p. 82 (ed. of Grunhut and Adler, 
Jerusalem, 1903). 

4 P. A. van der Lith and L. M. Devic, Livre des merveilles de l'lnde, p. 128 
(Leiden, 1883-86); or L. M. Devic, Les merveilles de l'lnde, p. 109 (Paris, 1878). 



12 The Diamond 

summer and winter. The serpents are distributed around the fire; 
sheep's flesh, eagles, and capture of the stones, are the same features as 
previously mentioned, but the dangers of the work are magnified: 
the flesh may be devoured by the flames; the eagle, drawing too near 
the fire, may likewise be burnt; and the captors may perish from the 
peril of the fire and the serpents. 1 

In the Sung period (960-1278) the story was vaguely known to 
Chou Mi. 2 In his work TsH tung ye yii, as quoted by Li Shi-ch£n, he 
says that, according to oral accounts, diamonds come from the Western 
Countries (Si yii) and the Uigurs; that the stones stick to the food taken 
by eagles on the summits of high mountains, thus enter their bowels, 
and appear in their droppings, which are searched by men for the 
stones in the desert of Gobi, north of the Yellow River. The honest 
author adds, "I do not know whether it is so or not." Fang I-chi, 
the author of the Wu li siao shi, s who wrote in the first half of the 
seventeenth century, criticises Chou Mi's story as erroneous and not 

1 An echo of a certain motive of the legend of the Diamond Valley seems to 
reverberate in the Shamir legend of the Semitic peoples. The most interesting form 
of this legend is found in Qazwinl (Ruska, Steinbuch aus der Kosmographie, p. 16), 
who calls the stone samur and characterizes it as the stone cutting all other stones. 
Solomon endeavors to obtain it that the stones required for the temple might be 
cut noiselessly. Only the eagle knows the place to find it, but the secret must 
be elicited from the bird through a ruse. The eggs are removed from its nest, 
enclosed in a glass bottle, and restored to their place. The returning eagle cannot 
break the glass with its pinions, and seeks for a piece of the stone in question, which 
he throws toward the vessel, breaking it into halves without noise. The eagle replies 
to Solomon's query that the stone is brought from a mountain in the west, termed 
Mount Samur, whither Solomon sends the Djinns, who get a goodly supply for him. 
In this legend the stone samur doubtless is intended for the diamond, and the motive 
of the eagle knowing its whereabouts is the same as in the legend of the Diamond 
Valley. The Talmud has strangely disfigured this story which is very sensibly told 
by Qazwinl, and has transformed the stone shamir into a worm of the size of a barley- 
grain, capable of splitting and engraving the hardest objects, so that the shamir 
figures among the fabulous animals of the Talmud (L. Lewysohn, Zoologie des 
Talmud, p. 351). The worm (and simultaneously) diamond shamir has been en- 
trusted to the wood-cock who took it to the summit of an uninhabited mountain; 
this is analogous to the birds or eagles bringing the diamonds up from the snake 
valley, and it is very tempting to assume that the snakes may have given rise to the 
curious Talmudic conception of the diamond as a worm. Lewysohn is of the opinion 
that the word shamir conveys the notion of hardness, and, for example, denotes iron, 
which is harder than stone, and also the diamond. — The Hebrew word shamir 
appears in Jeremiah (xvn, 1), Ezekiel (m, 9), and Zechariah (vn, 12), and is supposed 
to refer to the diamond ("adamant stone" in the English Bible); more probably it 
is the emery. In the opinion of some scholars, Greek aixhpLs ("emery") is derived 
from the Hebrew word. For further bibliographical data on the Shamir legend see 
T. Zachariae, Zeitschr. Vereins fur Volkskunde, Vol. XXIV, 1914, p. 423. 

2 A celebrated and fertile author, who was born about 1230, and died before 1320 
(see Pelliot, T'oung Pao, 1913, pp. 367, 368). 

3 Ch. 8, p. 22 (edition of Ning tsing Vang, 1884). 



Legend of the Diamond Valley 13 

clear. Both authors were evidently not acquainted with the older 
version of the Liang se kung ki. 

A new impetus to the legend was given during the Mongol period in 
the thirteenth century, when it was revived among the Arabs, in China, 
and in Europe. Reference has already been made to Qazwini (1 203-83) , 
who attributes it to the Valley of the Moon among the mountains of 
Serendib (Ceylon) ; and the geographer Edrisi localizes it in the land of 
the Klrkhfr (probably Kirghiz) in Upper Asia. The Arabic mineralogist 
Ahmed Tifashi, who died in 1253, even gives two versions, — one refer- 
ring to the hyacinth (in agreement with Epiphanius) of Ceylon, the other 
to the diamonds of India. 1 The former is vividly told, and the serpents 
"able to swallow an entire man" have duly been introduced; the latter 
is briefly jotted down, with a reference to the former chapter. 

Ch'ang T£, the Chinese envoy who was sent in 1 2 59 to Hulagu, King of 
Persia, mentions in his diary, among the wonders of the Western countries, 
the diamond, of which he correctly says that it comes from India. " The 
people take flesh," his story goes, "and throw it into the great valley. 
Then birds come and eat this flesh, after which diamonds are found in 
their excrement." 2 It is obvious that Ch'ang Te recorded the legend as 

1 A. Raineri Biscia, Fior di pensieri sulle pietre preziose di Ahmed Teifascite, 
pp. 21, 54 (2d ed., Bologna, 1906). As this work may not be in the hands of every 
reader, the text of the longer version may here be given: " Narra Ahmed Teifascite, 
a cui il sommo Iddio usi misericordia, che in alcuni anni non piovendo punto in quel 
montuoso territorio de Rahun, ed i suoi torrenti non trasportando per conseguenza 
verun lapillo di giacinto, coloro i quali bramano nulladimeno di fame acquisto, 
ricorrono al seguente compenso. Siccome sulla cima del prefato monte trovansi, 
ed annidano molte aquile, stante la total mancanza di abitatori, cosl prendono quelli 
un grosso animale, lo scannano, lo scorticano, e dopo averlo tagliato e diviso in larghi 
pezzi li lasciano alle falde dello stesso monte, e se n'allontanano. Osservando quelle 
aquile siffatti pezzi di carne corrono tosto per rapirli, e li trasportano verso dei loro 
nidi; ma giacche cammin facendo sono costrette di posarli qualche volta in terra, 
n'accade percio che attacansi a cotesti pezzi di carne diverse pietruzze o lapilli di 
giacinto. In seguito ripigliando le aquile stesse il volo coi rispettivi pezzi di carne, 
e venendo tra loro a contesa per rapporto ai medesimi, si da la combinazione che 
nella mischia ne cadono alcuni fuori dal predetto monte; lo che veduto dalle persone 
ivi a bella posta concorse vanno subito a raccogliere da tali pezzi tutta quella copia 
di giacinto, che vi e rimasta attaccata. La parte inferiore dell'indicato monte e in- 
gombrata da folti boschi, da larghi e profondi fossi, e burroni, non che da alberi d'alto 
fusto, ove trovansi vari serpenti che inghiottiscono un uomo intero. Per tal cagione 
niuno puo salir su quel monte e vedere le maraviglie che in esso contengonsi." 

2 Bretschneider, Mediaeval Researches, Vol. I, p. 152. Bretschneider states 
that the legend is very ancient, but refers only to Sindbad the Sailor from a second- 
hand source, and to Marco Polo. The text of the passage will be found in G. 
Schlegel (Nederlandsch-chineesch Woordenboek, Vol. I, p. 860). Compare Marco 
Polo (ed. of Yule and Cordier, Vol. II, p. 361): "The people go to the nests of 
those white eagles, of which there are many, and in their droppings they find plenty 
of diamonds which the birds have swallowed in devouring the meat that was cast 
into the valleys." 



14 The Diamond 

heard by him in the West, and that his version does not depend upon the 
older one of the Liang se kung ki, which evidently was not known to him. 
This case is interesting, for it shows that the same Western story was 
handed on to the Chinese at different times and from different sources. 

About the same time, Marco Polo chronicled the diamond story 1 
which he learned in India, and its close agreement in the main points 
with the Arabic authors is amazing. The Venetian was not the first 
European, however, to record it; as pointed out by Yule, it is one of the 
many stories in the scrap-book of the Byzantine historian Tzetzes. 2 

Nicolo Conti o£ the fifteenth century relates it of a mountain called 
Albenigaras, fifteen days' journey in a northerly direction from Vija- 
yanagar; and it is told again, apparently after Conti, by Julius Caesar 
Scaliger. As a popular tale it is found not only in Armenia, 8 as stated 
by Yule, but also in Russia. 4 

1 Yule and Cordier, The Book of Ser Marco Polo, Vol. II, p. 360. The bewitching 
of the serpents by means of mirrors is wanting. The feature of the eagles feeding upon 
the serpents appears to be a thoroughly Indian notion, absent in the Arabic accounts. 

2 One of the earliest mediaeval sources that contains the story is the fantastic 
description of India and the country of Prester John, written by Elysaeus in the 
latter part of the twelfth century, and edited by F. Zarncke (Der Priester Johannes 
II, pp. 120-127). This text is as follows: "Quomodo autem carbunculi reperiantur 
audiamus. Ibi est vallis quaedam, in qua carbunculi reperiuntur. Nullus autem 
hominum accedere potest prae pavore griffonum et profunditate vallis. Et cum 
habere volunt lapides, occidunt pecora et accipiunt cadavera, et in nocte accedunt 
ad summitatem vallis et deiciunt ea in vallem, et sic inprimuntur lapides in cadavera, 
et acuti sunt. Veniunt autem grif ones et assumunt cadavera et educunt ea. Eductis 
ergo cadaveribus perduntur carbunculi, et sic inveniuntur in campis." 

3 Probably due to the fact that it was adopted by the Armenian lapidarium of 
the seventeenth century, translated into Russian by K. P. Patkanov (p. 3). Of 
especial interest is the fact that the snakes are dissociated from the two Armenian 
versions known to us. This is the more curious, as the lapidarium fastens the story 
upon Alexander: consequently some Oriental form of the Romance of Alexander 
must have pre-existed, in which the snakes did not yet figure. For the benefit of 
those who may not have access to Von Haxthausen's Transcaucasia (London, 
1854), the source of the Armenian popular story (p. 360), its text may here follow: 
"In Hindostan there is a deep and rocky valley, in which all kinds of precious stones, 
of incalculable value, lie scattered upon the ground; when the sun shines upon them, 
they glisten like a sea of glowing, many-colored fire. The people see this from the 
summits of the surrounding hills, but no Qne can enter the valley, partly because there 
is no path to it and they could only be let down the steep rocks, and partly because 
the heat is so great that no one could endure it for a minute. Merchants come 
hither from foreign countries; they take an ox and hew it in pieces, which they fix 
upon long poles, and cast into the valley of gems. Then huge birds of prey hover 
around, descend into the valley, and carry off the pieces of flesh. But the merchants 
observe closely the direction in which the birds fly, and the places where they alight 
to feed, and there they frequently find the most valuable gems." 

4 Azbukovnik, Tales of the Russian People (in Russian), Vol. II, p. 161. As 
the story is here told in regard to the hyacinth, it appears to go back directly to the 
account of Epiphanius. 



Legend or the Diamond Valley 15 

Under the Ming (1368-1643) the story was repeated by Ts'ao Chao 
in his work Ko ku yao lun, which he published in 1387. His version is as 
follows: "Diamond-sand comes from Tibet (Si-fan). On the high 
summits of mountains with deep valleys, unapproachable to men, they 
make perches for the eagles, on which they set out food. The birds eat 
the flesh on the mountains and drop their ordure into desert places. 
This is gathered, and the stones are found in it." 1 

As regards the origin of our legend, two distinct opinions have been 
voiced. Yule 2 and Rohde 3 point to its great resemblance to what 
Herodotus (III, 1 1 1) tells of the manner in which cinnamon was obtained 
by the Arabs; and a certain amount of affinity between the two cannot 
be denied. Gre f at birds, says Herodotus, make use of cinnamon-sticks 
to build their nests, fastened with mud to high rocks, up which no foot 
of man is able to climb. So the Arabians resort to the artifice of cutting 
up the carcasses of beasts of burden and placing the pieces near the 
nests, whereupon they withdraw to a distance; and the old birds, swoop- 
ing down, seize the flesh and bring it up into their nests. As the pieces 
are large, they break through the nest and fall to the ground, when the 
Arabians return and collect the cinnamon. The interval between 
Herodotus and Epiphanius is too great to be spanned or to allow us to 
link their stories in close historical bonds. There must be many inter- 
mediary links unknown to us. They evidently belong, as two individual 
variations, to the same type of legend, and seem to point to the fact 
that the latter existed in the near Orient for a long time. 4 The Chinese 
text recorded in the beginning of the sixth century, from which we 
started, furnishes additional testimony to this effect. 

V. Ball 5 is inclined to think that the story "appears to be founded 
on the very common practice in India, on the opening of a mine, of 
offering up cattle to propitiate the evil spirits who are supposed to guard 
treasures — these being represented by the serpents in the myth. At 
such sacrifices in India, birds of prey invariably assemble to pick up 

1 Ko chi king yuan, Ch. 33, p. 3 b. 

2 L. c, p. 363. 

8 Der griechische Roman, p. 193. 

4 Certain elements of the story may be found also in Pliny's (xxxvii, 33) curious 
legend of the stone callaina, which has wrongly been identified with the turquois: 
Some say that these stones are found in Arabia in the nests of the birds called "black- 
heads" (Sunt qui in Arabia inveniri eas dicant in nidis avium, quas melancoryphos 
vocant). Pliny then reports the occurrence of the stones on inaccessible rocks which 
people cannot climb, and mentions the danger connected with the venture of seeking 
them. Capturing them with slings certainly is a different feature, characteristic of 
another cycle of legends. 

6 Translation of Tavernier's Travels in India, Vol. II, p. 461. 



1 6 The Diamond 

what they can, and in that fact we probably have the remainder of the 
foundation of the story. It is probable also that the story by Pliny 
and other early writers, of the diamond being softened by the blood of 
a he-goat, had its origin in such sacrifices." 1 This subjective explana- 

1 This tradition, which, as will be seen below, has a curious parallel in China, is 
entirely independent of the Diamond- Valley story, and bears no relation to it. It is 
regrettable that Ball does not betray who the "other early writers" are. Pliny, in 
fact, is the earliest and only ancient writer to have it on record; Augustinus (fifth 
century), Isidorus (who died in 636) and Marbod (1035-1123) have merely reiterated 
it after Pliny, and Pliny's story certainly is not borrowed from India. W. Crooke 
(Things Indian, p. 135) is inclined to think that if Ball's explanation be correct, the 
early diamond-diggers must have been non- Aryans, who did not regard the cow as 
sacred. The "early diamond-diggers " are a bit of exaggeration: in no Indian record 
of very early date does any mention of the diamond occur. Crooke's information 
on this point lacks somewhat the necessary precision. According to him, "diamonds 
were from very early times valued in India. The Purarias speak of them as divided 
into castes, and Marco Polo describes them as found in the kingdom of Mutfili." 
The Purana were at the best composed in the first centuries A.D., and more probably 
much later. The knowledge of the diamond, certainly, does not go back in India 
into that unfathomable antiquity, as pretended by some mineralogical and other 
authors (for instance, G. Watt, Dictionary of Economic Products of India, Vol. Ill, 
p. 93). It was wholly unknown in the Vedic period, from which no specific names of 
precious stones are handed down at all. The word mani, which has sometimes been 
taken to mean the diamond (Macdonell and Keith, Vedic Index of Names and Sub- 
jects, Vol. II, p. 119), simply denotes a bead used for personal ornamentation and as 
an amulet, and the arbitrary notion that it might refer to the diamond is disproved 
by the fact that it could be strung on a thread. The word vajra, which at a subse- 
quent period became an attribute of the diamond, originally served for the designation 
of a club-shaped weapon and of Indra's thunderbolt in particular (Macdonell, 
Vedic Mythology, p. 55). Philological considerations show us that the diamond 
had no place in times of Indian antiquity, for no plain and specific word has been 
appropriated for it in any ancient Indian language. Either, as in the case of vajra, 
a word long familiar with another meaning was transferred to it, or epithets briefly 
indicating some characteristic feature of the stone were created. S. K. Aiyangar 
(Note upon Diamonds in South India, Quarterly Journal of the Mythic Society, 
Vol. Ill, p. 129, Madras, 19 14) calls attention to the fact that the first systematic 
reference to diamonds is made in the Arthacastra of Kautilya (see V. A. Smith, 
Early History of India, 3d ed., pp. 151-153). He mentions six kinds of diamonds 
classified according to their mines, and described as differing in lustre and degree of 
hardness. He points out those of regular crystalline form and those of irregular 
shape. The best diamond should be large, heavy, capable of bearing blows, regular 
in shape, able to scratch the surface of metal vessels, refractive and brilliant. Aiyan- 
gar dates the work in question "probably at the commencement of the third century 
B.C." This date, however, is a mooted point (compare L. Finot, Bull, de I'Ecole fran- 
gaise, Vol. XII, 1912, pp. 1-4), which it would be out of place to discuss here. More 
probably, it is in the early Pali scriptures of Buddhism that we can trace the first 
unmistakable references to the diamond. In the Questions of King Milinda (Milin- 
dapanha, translation of Rhys Davids, p. 128) we read that the diamond ought to 
have three qualities : it should be pure throughout ; it cannot be alloyed with another 
substance; and it is mounted together with the most costly gems. The first alludes 
metaphorically to the monk's purity in his means of livelihood; the second, to his 
keeping aloof from the company of the wicked; the third, to his association with men 
of highest excellence, with men who have entered the first or second or third stage of 



Legend of the Diamond Valley 17 

tion is hardly convincing. It presupposes that the legend originated 
in India, but this postulate is not proved. That the later Arabic authors 
and Marco Polo place the locality in India, means nothing. Epiphanius 
lays the plot in Scythia; the Chinese version is laid in Fu-lin, and that 

the Noble Path, with the jewel treasures of the Arhats. The Milindapafiha may 
be dated with a fair degree of certainty: Milinda, who holds conversations with a 
Buddhist sage, is the Greek King Menandros, who ruled approximately between 
125 and 95 B.C. in the north-west of India; and the dialogues attributed to him may 
have been composed in the beginning of our era (M. Winternitz, Geschichte der 
indischen Litteratur, Vol. II, p. 140; V. A. Smith, Early History of India, p. 225). 
It is therefore quite sufficient to believe that the diamond became known in India 
during the Buddhist epoch in the first centuries B.C., say, roughly, from the sixth to 
the fourth century. The precious stones mentioned in Milindapafiha are enumerated 
by L. Finot (Lapidaires indiens, p. xix). The earliest descriptions of the diamond 
on the part of the Indians are by Varahamihira (a.d. 505-587; see H. Kern, Ver- 
spreide Geschriften, Vol. II, p. 97) and by Buddhabhatta, who wrote prior to the 
sixth century a.d. Since the word vajra designates both Indra's thunderbolt 
and the diamond, it is in many cases difficult to decide which of the two is meant 
(A. Foucher, Etudes sur riconographie bouddhique de lTnde, Vol. II, p. 15, left 
the point undecided, rendering vajrdsana by "siege de diamant ou du foudre"); 
and the same obstacle turns up again in Chinese-Buddhist literature, where the 
term kin-hang as the translation of Sanskrit vajra covers the two notions; so that, 
for instance, Pelliot {Bull, de VEcole francaise, Vol. II, p. 146) raises the question, 
"Quel est le sens precis de kin-kang?" Whether the title of the Sutra Vajracchedikd, 
for instance, is correctly translated by "diamond-cutter," as has been done, is much 
open to doubt. If it should mean "sharply cutting, like a diamond" (Winternitz, 
/. c, p. 249), why could it not mean as well "sharply cutting, like a thunderbolt"? 
The thunderbolt, generally described as metallic, is also sharp; and Indra whets it 
like a knife, or as a bull its horns. Though a Chinese commentator of that work 
observes that, as the diamond excels all other precious gems in brilliance and in- 
destructibility, so also the wisdom of this work transcends and shall outlive all other 
knowledge known to philosophy (W. Gemmell, The Diamond Sutra, p. 47), it is but 
a late afterthought, and proves nothing as to the original Indian concept. The most 
curious misconceptions have arisen about the so-called " Diamond-Seat " ( Vajrdsana). 
This is the name of the throne or seat on which Gakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism, 
reached perfect enlightenment under the sacred fig-tree at Gaya. The Chinese 
pilgrim Huan Tsang, who visited the place during his memorable journey in India, 
remarks that it was made from diamond (Ta T'ang si yii ki, Ch. 8, p. 14, ed. of Shou 
slfian ko ts'ung shu; Julien, Memoires sur les contrees occidentales, Vol. I, p. 460; 
Watters, On Yuan Chwang's Travels, Vol. II, p. 114); but this is incredible, if for 
no other reason, because he proceeds to say that this throne measured over a hundred 
paces in circuit. While this may be solely the outcome of a popular tradition growing 
out of an interpretation of the name, Huan Tsang himself explains well how this 
name arose. It is derived, according to him, from the circumstance that here the 
thousand Buddhas of this eon (kalpa) enter the vajrasamddhi ("diamond ecstasy"), 
the designation for a certain degree of contemplative ecstasy. Moreover, in the 
Biography of Huan Tsang (Julien, Histoire de la vie de Hiouen-Thsang, p. 139) 
it is more explicitly stated that the employment of the word "diamond" in the 
term "Diamond-Seat" signifies that this throne is firm, solid, indestructible, and 
capable of resisting all shocks of the world. In other words, it is used metaphorically ; 
Buddha's own firmness and determination in the long struggle for obtaining enlight- 
enment and salvation, his fortitude in overcoming the hostile forces of Mara, 
the Evil One, being transferred to the seat which he occupied immovably during 



1 8 The Diamond 

of Pseudo-Aristotle in Khorasan, etc. No ancient Sanskrit or Pali 
version of the story has as yet become known; and the weight of evidence 
is in favor of the Arabs having propagated it farther eastward .in the 
ninth and tenth centuries, while it was known in China long before 
that time. The snakes and eagles, of course, could be translated into 
Indian thought as Naga and Garucja; 1 but, again, the Indians do not 
tell us of such a tradition in connection with these two mythical crea- 
tures. Even granted that the addition of the snakes in Pseudo-Aristotle 
might be due to a secondary influence or to some latent undercurrent 
of Indian conception which possibly penetrated into Syria, the Indian 
origin of the legend would not be proved, either: for Epiphanius has 
no snakes; and the old Chinese version lacks them too, and has "birds" 
instead of eagles. We remember, however, that the Chinese text 
winds up with an allusion to a Buddhist notion, the Devaraja of the 
Rupadhatu; but neither is this evidence of an Indian provenience of the 
legend, which, as unambiguously stated in the text of Chang Yue, 
hailed from Fu-lin. This additional annotation, certainly not devised 
in Fu-lin, was derived by the author from another tradition, which we 
now propose to examine, and which will shed unexpected light on the 
position held by India in the diffusion of this tale. 

A contribution to the question whether the legend of the Diamond 

that interval. The counterpart of this sacred site may be viewed in China on the 
Island of P'u-t'o, in the so-called "P'an-t'o Rock," which is styled "Diamond Pre- 
cious Stone," on which, according to local legend, the Bodhisatva Avalokitecvara 
(Kuan-yin) sat enthroned; this Diamond-Seat, however, is nothing but a rocky 
bowlder, the top of which is reached by means of a ladder, where contemplative 
monks may often be seen absorbed by the religious practice of meditation (dhydna; 
compare R. F. Johnston, Buddhist China, p. 313, London, 1913). The Vajrasana 
of Buddha, accordingly, has as much to do with the diamond in its quality of stone 
as, for instance, Dante's diamond throne on which the angel of God is seated (L'angel 
di Dio, sedendo in su la soglia, Che mi sembiava pietra di diamante. — Purgatorio, 
ix, 104-105). Here also it is a metaphor, referring, according to the one, to the 
firmness and constancy of the confessor, or, according to others, to the symbol of 
the solid fundament of the Church (Divina Commedia, ed. Scartazzini, p. 371). 
In a text of the Japanese Shin sect, the question is of a "heart strong as the diamond " 
in the sense of a diamond-hard faith (H. Haas, Amida Buddha, p. 122). Also the 
heart of the hardened sinner is compared with the diamond in Buddhist literature 
(H. Wenzel, Nagarjuna's Friendly Epistle, p. 24, stanza 83; S. Beal, The Suhril- 
lekha or Friendly Letter, p. 31, stanza 85, London, 1892). The Manicheans used 
the word in a similar manner by way of illustration, when it is said in one of their 
writings that the Messenger of Light is the precious diamond pillar supporting the 
multitude of beings (Chavannes and Pelliot, Traite" manich6en, p. 90). 

1 Marco Polo (/. c.) explains the presence of the serpents in a natural manner: 
14 Moreover in those mountains great serpents are rife to a marvellous degree, besides 
other vermin, and this owing to the great heat. The serpents are also the most 
venomous in existence, insomuch that any one going to that region runs fearful 
peril; for many have been destroyed by these evil reptiles." 



Legend of the Diamond Valley 19 

Valley was known in ancient India is furnished by the same work, Liang 
se kung tse ki, as supplied to us with the Fu-lin version of the legend. 
Here we read this story: "A large junk of Fu-nan (Cambodja) which 
had come from western India arrived (in China) and offered for sale a 
mirror of a peculiar variety of rock-crystal, 1 one foot and four inches 
across its surface, and forty catties in weight. On the surface and in 
the interior it was pure white and transparent, and displayed many- 
colored objects on its obverse. When held against the light and ex- 
amined, its substance was not discernible. On inquiry for the price, it 
was given at a million strings of copper coins. The Emperor ordered 
the officials to raise this sum, but the treasury did not hold enough. 
Those traders said, ' This mirror is due to the action of the Devaraja 
of the Rupadhatu. 2 On felicitous and joyful occasions he causes the 
trees of the gods 3 to pour down a shower of precious stones, and the 
mountains receive them. The mountains conceal and seize the stones, 
so that they are difficult to obtain. The flesh of big animals is cast 
into the mountains; and when the flesh in these hiding-places becomes 
so putrefied that it phosphoresces, it resembles a precious stone. Birds 
carry it off in their beaks, and this is the jewel from which this mirror 
is made.' Nobody in the empire understood this and dared pay that 
price." 4 This account gives us a clew as to how it happened that the 
Devaraja of the Rupadhatu was linked with the aforesaid legend hail- 
ing from Fu-lin. Both legends are on record in the same book, and 
the author combined the one report with the other. There is no reason 
to wonder that the story of the Fu-nan traders was not comprehended 
in China. We ourselves should be completely at sea, did not the West- 
ern legends enlighten the mystery. The story-teller from Fu-nan either 
did not express himself very clearly or was not perfectly understood by 
his interpreter, or the text of the Liang se kung tse ki has come down 
to us in corrupt shape. It is indubitable, however, that the story here 
on record is an echo of the legend of the Diamond Valley. All its essen- 
tial features clearly stand out, — the inaccessible mountains hoarding 
the stones, the casting of flesh on them, and birds securing the stones. 
The narrative is only obscure in omitting to state that the jewels ad- 

1 Compare the writer's note on this subject in T'oung Pao, 1915, p. 200. 

2 See above, p. 7. 

3 This term corresponds to Sanskrit devalaru ("tree of the gods"), a designation 
for the five miraculous trees to be found in Indra's Heaven, — kalpavriksha, parijata, 
manddra, samtana, and haricandana (compare Hopkins, Journal Am. Or. Soc, 
Vol. XXX, 1910, pp. 352, 353). 

4 T % ai pHng yii Ian, Ch. 808, p. 6 (the Chinese text will be found in T'oung Pao, 
1915. P- 202). 



20 The Diamond 

here to the flesh which is devoured by the birds, while the puerile inti- 
mation that the putrefaction of the flesh transforms it into stone is 
interpolated. The Fu-nan merchants had come to China from the 
shores of western India, and brought from there the expensive crystal 
mirror. With it came the story, and thus some form of the legend of 
the Diamond Valley must have existed in the western part of India at 
least in the beginning of the sixth century a.d. Certainly it was a 
much fuller and more intelligent version than that presented to us 
through the medium of the Fu-nan seafarers. Be this as it may, also 
India took its place in this universal concert of Asiatic nations; and 
our Chinese text has fortunately preserved the only Indian version 
thus far known, and now first revealed and explained. It is most in- 
teresting that the Indian tradition belongs to the type of the plain 
dramatic version, in which the by-play of the serpents is wanting; so 
is the Garuda; and the only specific Indian traits are the tree of the 
gods and the Devaraja Kubera. Aside from these incidents, which 
are inconclusive in stamping the legend as Indian in its origin, it 
thoroughly tallies with that of Epiphanius. For this and also chrono- 
logical reasons it follows that Fu-lin was the centre from which the 
legend spread simultaneously to India and China. G. Huet l has re- 
cently given another interesting example of a story originating in 
western Asia, a weak echo of which was carried into India. 

It is therefore my opinion that the legend of the Valley of Diamonds 
or Precious Stones in its two early variations, as represented by Epi- 
phanius and Pseudo-Aristotle, whatever its antecedents and its possible 
associations with earlier stories of the Herodotian type may have been, 
originated in the Hellenistic Orient, and was propagated from this centre 
to China, to India, to the Arabs, and to Persia. The Chinese tradition 
of the Liang se hung tse hi, being an exact parallel to that of Epiphanius 
and approaching it more closely in time than any of the Arabic and 
other versions, being earlier and purer than that of Pseudo-Aristotle, 
presents an important contribution to the question, and shows that 
traditions of Fu-lin flowed into China long before its name was recorded 
in her official annals. The Chinese and Indian versions bear out still 
another significant point that may enable us to reconstruct the original 
form in which the subject was propagated in the Hellenistic world. It 
is manifest that Epiphanius, while by a lucky chance our earliest source 
on the matter, does not preserve the story in its primeval or pure form; 
he pursues a theological tendency by lining it up in his discourse on the 



1 Le conte du "mort reconnaissant " et le livre de Tobie {Revue de Vhistoire des 
religions, Vol. LXXI, 1915, pp. 1-29). 



Indestructibility of the Diamond 21 

stones in the breastplate of the Jewish High Priest, and focuses it on 
the hyacinth, which makes for too narrow a specialization to be credit- 
able to the original. Certainly Epiphanius is not the author of the 
story, but merely its propagandist; it was folk-lore of his time which he 
imbibed and employed for his specific purpose. This point of view is 
upheld by our Chinese text, which records the story as a tradition com- 
ing from the Hellenistic Orient, and which clearly indicates also its 
object. The precious stones of anterior Asia had always wrought an 
unbounded fascination on the minds of the Chinese, and the scope of 
this tradition is to account for the enormous wealth in jewels possessed 
by the country Fu-lin. Here we have a bit of humorous wit, as offered 
by the inhabitants of Fu-lin in explanation of numerous queries ad- 
dressed to theni by foreign traders: it was a story freely circulating in 
Fu-lin, not centring around the hyacinth, but relating to precious stones 
in the widest sense. Such appears to have been the original story, and 
thus it is preserved to us by the Chinese. That Pseudo- Aristotle and 
his successors (except Tifashi with his relapse into the hyacinth) chose 
the diamond, is easily intelligible, the diamond being always deemed 
the foremost and most valuable of all precious stones. 1 

Indestructibility of the Diamond. — The Taoist adept Ko 
Hung (fourth century a.d.) has the following notice on the diamond: 
"The kingdom of Fu-nan (Cambodja) produces diamonds (kin kang 
■^fi'J) which are capable of cutting jade. In their appearance they 
resemble fluor-spar. 2 They grow on stones like stalactites, 3 on the bot- 
tom of the sea to the depth of a thousand feet. Men dive in search for 
the stones, and ascend at the close of a day. The diamond when struck 
by an iron hammer is not damaged; the latter, on the contrary, will be 

1 J. H. Krause, Pyrgoteles, p. 29. The diamond is forestalled in the text of 
Epiphanius by the reference to the incombustible property of the stones. 

2 Ts'e shi ying &£•$*■, thus identified by D. Hanbury, Notes on Chinese Materia 
Medica {Pharmaceutical Journal, 1861, p. no), or Science Papers, p. 218. E. Biot 
identified it with rock-crystal and smoky quartz (Pauthier and Bazin, Chine mod- 
erne, Vol. II, p. 556). 

3 Chung ju shi lllufi, identified by D. Hanbury (I. c), with carbonate 
of lime in stalactitic masses, obtained from caves. The Chinese name, however, 
does not signify, as stated by Hanbury, "hanging- (like a bell) milk-stone," but the 
term chungju refers to the mammillary protuberances or knobs on the ancient Chinese 
bells (see Hirth, Boas Anniversary Volume, pp. 251, 257). Giles (No. 5691) has 
the name in the form shi chungju, "stone-bell teats, — stalactites." Reduced to a 
powder the stone is used as a tonic. Compare F. Porter Smith, Contributions 
toward the Materia Medica of China, p. 204; Geerts, Produits de la nature japonaise 
et chinoise, p. 342; F. de Mely, Lapidaires chinois, pp. 92, 254. Important Chinese 
notes on this mineral are contained in the Yiin lin shi p % u of Tu Wan (Ch. c, p. 8), 
Ling-wai tai ta of n 78 by Chou K'u-fei (Ch. 7, p. 13), and Pin ts'ao kang mu (Ch. 9, 
p. 17b). 



22 The Diamond 

spoiled. If, however, a blow is dealt at the diamond by means of a 
ram's horn, 1 it will at once be dissolved, and break like ice." 2 

The motive, diamonds being fished from the ocean, is an old Indian 
fable. We meet it in the Suppdraka-jdtaka, No. 463 in the famous 
Pali collection of Buddha's birth-stories. According to this legend, 
the diamonds are to be found in the Khuramala Sea. The Bodhisatva 
was on board ship, acting as skipper for a party of merchants. He 
reflected that if he told them this was a diamond sea, they would sink 
the ship in their greed by collecting the diamonds. So he told them 
nothing; but having brought the ship to, he got a rope, and lowered a 
net as if to catch fish. With this he brought in a haul of diamonds, and 
stored them in the ship; then he caused the wares of little value to be 
cast overboard. 3 Of course, the Indian mineralogists knew better than 
that, and even enumerate eight sites where the diamond was found. 4 

1 According to another reading, "antelope, or chamois horn" (ling yang kio). 
The latter is said to be solid and to occur only in the High-Rock Mountains (Kao shi 
shan) of Annam (Wu li siao shi, Ch. 8, p. 21b; and T'u shu tsi ch'ing, Pien i lien, 
Annam, hui k'ao 6, p. 8 b). 

2 Pin ts'ao kang mu, Ch. 10, p. 12. Compare P. Pelliot, Le Fou-nan (Bull, 
de VEcolefrangaise, Vol. Ill, 1903, p. 281). The same notice has been embodied in 
the account of the country of Fu-nan contained in the New Annals of the T'ang 
Dynasty (T'ang shu, Ch. 222 b, p. 2; and Pelliot, /. c, p. 274). Fu-nan, of course, 
did not produce diamonds, as said by the T'ang Annals in this passage, but imported 
them from India, as attested by a statement in the same Annals (T'ang shu, Ch. 
221 a, p. 10 b) to the effect that India trades diamonds with Ta Ts'in (the Roman 
Orient), Fu-nan, and Kiao-chi. As both Indian diamonds and legends concerning 
them were encountered by the Chinese in Fu-nan, it was pardonable for them to 
believe that diamonds were a product of that country. Chao Ju-kua (translation of 
Hirth and Rockhill, p. in) says that the diamond of India will not melt, though 
exposed to the fire a hundred times. 

3 E. B. Cowell, The Jataka, Vol. IV, p. 88. Compare also the Tibetan Dsang- 
lun, Ch. 30 (I. J. Schmidt, Der Weise und der Thor, pp. 227 et seq.); and Schiefner, 
Taranatha, p. 43. The Hindu mineralogists entertain also the notion that the 
diamond floats on the water (L. Finot, Lapidaires indiens, p. xlviii) ; and there is 
a fabulous account of a diamond of marine origin in the Tsa pao Isang king (Bunyiu 
Nanjio, Catalogue, No. 1329; Chavannes, Cinq cents contes et apologues, Vol. Ill, 
p. 1), translated from Sanskrit into Chinese in a.d. 472. A merchant from southern 
India who had an expert knowledge of pearls traversed several kingdoms, showing 
everywhere a pearl, the specific qualities of which nobody could recognize till he met 
Buddha, who said, "This wishing-jewel (cintamani) originates from the huge fish 
makara, whose body is two hundred and eighty thousand li (Chinese leagues) long. 
The name of this gem is ' hard like the diamond ' (kin-kang Hen, Chinese rendering 
of Sanskrit vajrasara, an attribute of the diamond). It has the property of producing 
at once precious objects, clothing, and food, and securing everything according to 
one's wish. He who obtains this gem cannot be hurt by poison, or be burnt by 
fire." My translation is based on the text, as quoted in Yuan kien lei han (Ch. 364, 
p. 15b), the wording of which to some extent dissents from that translated by 
M. Chavannes (/. c, p. 77). 

4 L. Finot, Lapidaires indiens, p. xxv. 



Indestructibility of the Diamond 23 

In the Jataka, the notion of the pearl being born from the ocean 1 has 
been transferred to the diamond. Q. Curtius Rufus echoes this native 
tradition when, in his description of India, he says that the sea casts upon 
the shores precious stones and pearls, these offscourings of the boiling 
sea being valued at the price which fashion sets on coveted luxuries. 2 

The Chinese tradition transmitted from Fu-nan — that iron does 
not break the diamond, but that the latter breaks iron — is reflected in 
the same manner by Pliny, who says that the stones are tested upon 
the anvil, and resist the blows with the result that the iron rebounds, and 
the anvil splits asunder. 3 This certainly is pure fiction and merely a 
popular illustration of the hardness of the stone. 4 This notion has 
accordingly migrated, and the Physiologus presents the missing link 
between East and West by asserting that the diamond cannot be 
damaged by iron, fire, or smoke. 5 In India we meet the same test, 
inasmuch as a diamond is regarded as genuine if it is struck with other 
stones or iron hammers without bursting. 6 The fact that the Arabic 
treatises on mineralogy reiterate the same story need not be discussed 
here; for the account of Ko Hung is far older than these, and proves 
that long before the advent of the Arabs it passed from India to Fu-nan 
and from Fu-nan to China. 

Discussing the phenomena of sympathy and apathy ruling in nature, 
Pliny sets forth that this indomitable power which contemns the two 
most violent agents of nature, iron and fire, 7 is broken by the blood of 



1 Ibid., p. xxxii. A Sanskrit epithet of the pearl is samudraja ("sea-born"). 

2 J. W. McCrindle, Invasion of India by Alexander, p. 187. 

3 Incudibus hi deprehenduntur ita respuentes ictus ut ferrum utrimque dissultet, 
incudes ipsae etiam exiliant (xxxvn, 15, § 57). Compare Blumner, Technologie, 
Vol. Ill, p. 230. 

4 The diamond is hard, but not tough, and can easily be broken with the blow of 
a hammer. It is as brittle as at least the average of crystallized minerals (Far- 
rington, Gems and Gem Minerals, p. 70). The fabulous notion of the ancients was 
first refuted by Garcia da Orta (or, ab Horto), in his work on the Drugs of India, 
which appeared in Portuguese at Goa in 1563. "It is out of the question," he says, 
"that the diamond resists the hammer; on the contrary, it can be pulverized by means 
of a small hammer, and may easily be pounded in a mortar with an iron pestle, 
the powder being used for the grinding of other diamonds" (compare J. Ruska, 
Der Diamant in der Medizin, Festschrift Baas, p. 129). In the Italian translation 
of Garcia (p. 182, Venice, 1582) the passage runs thus: "Non e il vero, che il diamante 
resista alia botta del martello, percioche con ogni picciolo martello si riduce in polvere, 
e con grandissima facilita si pesta col pistello di ferro; e in questo modo lo pestano 
coloro, che con la sua polvere poliscono gli altri diamanti." 

5 F. Lauchert, Geschichte des Physiologus, p. 34. 
8 R. Garbe, Die indischen Mineralien, p. 82. 

7 Pliny, accordingly, was of the opinion that the diamond is able to resist fire, 
and Dioscorides (L. Leclerc, Traite" des simples, Vol. Ill, p. 272) acquiesced in 



24 The Diamond 

a ram, which, however, must be fresh and warm. The stone must be 
well steeped in it, and receive repeated blows, and even then will break 
anvils and iron hammers unless they be of excellent temper. 1 ' This 
fantasy has passed into the writings of St. Augustin, 2 and, further, 
into our mediaeval poets, who interpreted the ram's blood as the blood 
of Christ, likewise into our lapidaires. 3 



this belief. Theophrastus (De lapidibus, 19; opera ed. F. Wimmer, p. 343), in a 
passing manner, alludes to the incombustibility of the diamond by ascribing the 
same property to the carbuncle {anthrax) ; the lack of humidity in these stones renders 
them impervious to fire (compare Krause, Pyrgoteles, p. 15 and note 4). Apol- 
lonius Dyscolus, in the first half of the second century a.d. (Rerum naturalium 
scriptores Graeci minores, ed. Keller, Vol. I, p. 50), says that the diamond, when 
exposed to a fire, is not heated. 

1 Siquidem ilia invicta vis, duarum violentissimarum naturae rerum ferri ignium- 
que contemptrix, hircino rumpitur sanguine, neque aliter quam recenti calidoque 
macerata et sic quoque multis ictibus, tunc etiam praeterquam eximias incudes 
malleosque ferreos frangens {ibid., § 59); also in the same work, xx, procemium: 
sanguine hircino rumpente. 

2 Qui lapis nee ferro nee igni nee alia vi ulla perhibetur praeter hircinum sangui- 
nem vinci (De civitate Dei, xxi, 4). Also Isidorus, Origines, xn, 1, 14; and Mar- 
bodus, De lapidibus pretiosis, 1. 

3 F. Lauchert, Geschichte des Physiologus, p. 179. L. Pannier (Les Lapidaires 
frangais du moyen age, p. 36): 

"Par fer ne par fou n'iert ovree 
S'el sang del buc chiald n'est tempreeV' 
F. Pfeiffer, Buch der Natur von Konrad von Megenberg, p. 433; Albertus 
Magnus, De virtutibus lapidum, p. 135 (Amstelodami, 1669). The origin of the 
Plinian story is hard to explain, as there is no other ancient or Oriental source that 
contains it. C. W. King (Antique Gems, p. 107) thinks it is a jeweller's story, prob- 
ably invented to keep up the mystery of the business. Blumner (Technologie, 
Vol. Ill, p. 231) supposes either that the ancient lapidaries really used ram's blood 
in good faith, without examining whether the diamond could also be broken without 
it, or that they merely pretended such a procedure to the laymen as an alleged artifice 
of their trade. These rationalistic speculations, unsupported by evidence, are 
unsatisfactory. More plausible is the view of E. O. von Lippmann (Abhandlungen 
und Vortrage, Vol. I, p. 83), that the blood of the ram, owing to the sensual lust of 
this animal, was regarded as particularly hot. As is well known, a ram was the 
animal sacred to Bacchus (O. Keller, Antike Tierwelt, Vol. I, p. 305); and ram's 
blood was a remedy administered in cases of dysentery (F. de Mely, Lapidaires 
grecs, p. 92). What merits special attention, however, is that Capricorn as asterisk 
of the zodiac, according to Manilius, belonged to Vesta; and that everything in need 
of fire, like mines, working of metals, even bakery, was under its influence. More- 
over, in ancient astrology, the twelve signs of the zodiac are associated with twelve 
precious stones, and in this series adamas belongs to Capricorn (see the list in F. Boll, 
Stoicheia, No. 1, p. 40). The idea of ram's blood acting upon the diamond, therefore, 
seems to be finally traceable to an astrological origin. A curious custom relating to 
ram's horn is reported by Strabo (xvi, 4, § 17). When the Troglodytae of Ethiopia 
bury their dead, some of them bind the corpse from the neck to the legs with twigs 
of the buckthorn [Paliurus; an infusion of this plant, according to Strabo, forms the 
drink of these people in general]. They at once throw stones over the body, at the 
same time laughing and rejoicing, until they have covered its face. Thereupon 



Indestructibility of the Diamond 25 

That our Chinese text above speaks of a ram's horn may be due to 
the fact that this modification was caused by the error of a scribe or 
by some misunderstanding of the Western tradition regarding ram's 
blood. More probably the people of Fu-nan (Cambodja), or even of 
India, are responsible for the alteration, which in this form was then 
picked up by the Chinese. The adequateness of the latter interpreta- 
tion follows from an interesting passage in the book Hilan chung ki of 
the fifth century, quoted by Li Shi-ch&n, which concludes a notice of 
the diamond with the statement that in the countries of the West the 
nature of Buddha is metaphorically likened to the diamond, and ram's 
horn to the "impurity of passion " (fan nao ffi f |). This compound is a 
technical Buddhist term, being a translation of Sanskrit klega-kashaya, 
the third of a series of five kashdya, five impurities or spheres of corrup- 
tion. 1 Taken individually, these two emblematic figures of speech are 
unobjectionable; but what would it mean, that a ram's horn, symbolic 
of the impurity of passion, can break the Buddha, who has the nature 
of the diamond? This, from a Buddhistic angle, is unintelligible; the 
opposite would be true. The foundation of this symbolism, plainly, 
cannot be of Buddhistic origin; but the impetus was apparently received 
from a Christian source, and was re-interpreted in India. The matter 



they place over it a ram's horn and go away. In this case the ram's horn doubtless 
figures also as an instrument of extraordinary strength: it overpowers the body and 
soul of the deceased, keeping his spirit down and preventing it from a return to 
the former home, where it might do harm to the survivors. Therefore the mourners 
rejoice in accomplishing their purpose. Ram's heads were extensively employed in 
Greek art (H. Winnefeld, Altgriech. Bronzebecken aus Leontini, Progr. Winckel- 
mannsfest, No. 59, 1899). Ball's opinion that ram's blood is the outcome of Indian 
sacrifices held on the opening of a mine, discussed above on p. 15, is untenable, 
as there is no Indian tradition connecting the diamond with ram's blood. The 
baselessness of this theory is further demonstrated by the fact that the Chinese have 
altered the classical "ram's blood" into a "ram's horn;" and the Chinese account 
hailed from Fu-nan (Cambodja), a country with a strong impact of Indian civiliza- 
tion. The transformation, therefore, seems to have been effected in an Indian 
region. For this reason it is impossible to seek the origin of this idea in India, where 
apparently it was not understood and was changed into a "horn," which appears to 
have been regarded there as stronger than blood. As to the classical idea of heat 
suggested by ram's blood, it is noteworthy, however, that in late Indian art, Agni, 
the God of Fire, is represented as riding on a gray goat, flames of fire streaming round 
about him, his crown also being surrounded by fire (B. Ziegenbalg, Genealogy of 
the South-Indian Gods, p. 191, Madras, 1869). Thus the conception of the ram or 
goat as an animal of fire is brought out, — a fire of such vehemence as to subdue 
the hardest body of nature. 

1 See Eitel, Handbook of Chinese Buddhism, p. 67; Chavannes, Cinq cents 
contes et apologues, Vol. I, p. 17; and O. Franke, Chin. Tempelinschrift, p. 51. 
F. de Mely (Lapidaires chinois, p. 124) incorrectly understands that "in India the 
nature of Buddha is compared with the diamond ; and his sadness, with the horn of 
the antelope ling." 



26 The Diamond 

will only become intelligible if we substitute " ram's blood' ' for "ram's 
horn" and interpret "ram's blood" as the blood of the Lamb, the 
Christian Saviour. This symbolic explanation has indeed been attached 
in the West to Pliny's ram's blood subduing the diamond. The idea is 
not found in the Physiologus, which compares the diamond itself with 
Christ (analogous to Buddha as the diamond), but it turns up in the 
mediaeval poets. Frauenlob explains the destruction of the diamond 
through buck's blood as the salvation, saying that the adamas (diamond) 
of the hard curse was broken by the blood of Christ. 1 

Diamond and Lead. — Dioscorides of the first century a.d. observes 
on the diamond, "It is one of the properties of the diamond to break 
the stones against which it is brought into contact and pressed. It 
acts alike on all bodies of the nature of stone, with the exception of lead. 
Lead attacks and subdues it. While it resists fire and iron, it allows 
itself to be broken by lead, and this is the expedient employed to pul- 
verize it." 2 

The oldest Arabic book on stones, sailing under the flag of Aristotle, 
reports in the chapter on the diamond, probably drawing from Dios- 
corides, that it cannot be overpowered by any other stone save lead, 
which is capable of pulverizing it. 8 

In a Syriac and Arabic treatise on alchemy of the ninth or tenth 
century, edited and translated by R. Duval, it is said that lead makes 
the diamond suffer; the translator understands this in the sense that 
lead serves for the working of the diamond, adding in a note that one 
worked the diamond and other precious stones, enclosed in sheets of 
lead, by means of ruby or diamond dust. 4 The action of lead on the 
diamond certainly is imaginary. This idea conveys the impression of 
having received its impetus from the circle of the alchemists. Muham- 
med Ibn Mansur, who wrote a treatise on mineralogy in Persian during 
the thirteenth century, says regarding this point, "On the anvil, the 
diamond is not broken under the hammer, but rather penetrates into 
the anvil. In order to break the diamond, it is placed between lead, 
the latter being struck with a mallet, whereupon the stone is broken. 
Others, instead of using lead, envelop the diamond in resin or 

1 Compare F. Lauchert, Geschichte des Physiologus, p. 179. In the Cathedral 
of Troyes there is a sculpture from the end of the thirteenth century, representing the 
Lamb of God under the unusual form of a ram with large horns and bearing the Cross 
of the Resurrection. A. N. Didron (Christian Iconography, Vol. I, pp. 325, 326) 
styles this work a "most unaccountable anomaly," but the symbolism set forth above 
surely accounts for it. 

2 L. Leclerc, Traite* des simples, Vol. Ill, p. 272. 

1 J. Ruska, Steinbuch des Aristoteles, p. 149 (compare p. 76). 
* M. Berthelot, La chimie au moyen age, Vol. II, pp. 124, 136. 



Diamond and Lead 27 

wax." l The Armenian lapidarium of the seventeenth century 2 is most 
explicit on the matter: "The diamond is bruised by means of lead in 
the following manner: lead is hammered out into a foil, on which the 
diamond is put ; and when completely wrapped up with it, it is placed on 
an iron anvil, the lead being struck with an iron hammer. The diamond 
crumbles into pieces from these blows, but remains in the leaden foil, 
and is not dispersed into various directions, as it is prevented from so 
doing by the ductility of the lead. Released from the latter, the broken 
diamond is fit for work. In want of lead, the diamond is covered with 
wax and wrapped up in twelve layers of paper, whereupon it is smashed 
by hammer-blows. In order to secure it in pure condition and without 
loss, the whole mass is flung into boiling water, causing the wax to melt, 
the paper to float on the surface of the water, and the diamond-splinters 
to sink to the bottom of the vessel. Then it is pounded in a steel mortar 
and is at once ready for industrial purposes. With this pounded 
diamond (diamond-dust) the jewellers polish good and coarse dia- 
monds . ' ' The practical ob j ect in the use of lead is here clearly indicated ; 
but what appears in this work of recent date as a merely technical 
process was in its origin a superstitious act, as is explained by Tifashi, 
who wrote toward the middle of the thirteenth century. According to 
this author, the diamond, as stated by Pliny, is a golden stone; and in 
the same manner as gold is affected by lead, lead is able to pulverize 
the diamond. 3 

This Western idea has likewise migrated into China, and turns up in 
the Tan fang kien yiian, an alchemical work by Tu Ku-t'ao of the Sung 
period, according to whom lead can reduce the diamond to fragments. 4 
This author terms the stone "metal-hard awl or drill" {kin kang tsuan 
^M^'JI^); that is, "diamond-point" (kin kang being the usual name 
for the diamond). According to Li Shi-ch6n, the author of the Ptn 



1 J. von Hammer, Fundgruben des Orients, Vol. VI, p. 132 (Wien, 1818); M. 
Clement-Mullot, Essai sur la min£ralogie arabe, p. 131 (Journal asiatique, 6th 
series, Vol. XI, 1868). Al-Akfanl expresses himself in a similar manner (Wiede- 
mann, Zur Mineralogie im Islam, p. 218). 

"Russian translation of K. P. Patkanov, p. 1. 

8 A. Raineri Biscia, Fior di pensieri, p. 53 (2d ed., Bologna, 1906). 

4 Pin ts % ao kang mu, Ch. 10, p. 12. The author speaks of a certain kind of lead 
styled "lead with purple back" (tse pet yuan %^|a), in regard to which the Pin 
ts'ao kang mu only says that it is a variety of lead very pure and hard, able to cut 
the diamond (compare Geerts,. Les produits de la nature japonaise et chinoise, 
p. 605). Geerts annotates, " Ceci est une de ces absurdites que Ton trouve si souvent 
chez les auteurs chinois a',cdt<§ de renseignements exacts et utiles." Certainly, the 
Chinese are not responsible for this "absurdity," which comes straight from our 
classical antiquity. 



28 The Diamond 

ts'ao kang mu, this name first occurs in the dictionary Shi ming, while 
the usual mineralogical designation is kin kang shi ("metal-hard stone"). 
Also Pseudo-Aristotle has the diamond " boring" all kinds of stones and 
pearls, and Qazwfni styles it a " borer." Li Shi-chen says that "by 
means of diamond-sand jade can be perforated and porcelain repaired, 
hence the name awl (tsuan)." 1 An interesting analogy to this con- 
ception occurs in the Arabic stories of Sindbad the Sailor, dating in 
the ninth century. Sindbad tells, "Walking along the valley I found 
that its soil was of diamond, the stone wherewith they pierce jewels 
and precious stones and porcelain and onyx, for that it is a hard dense 
stone, whereon neither iron nor steel has effect, neither can we cut off 
aught therefrom nor break it, save by means of the load-stone." We 
shall now discuss one of the most interesting problems bearing on the 
diamond, — the ancient employment of the diamond-point. 

The Diamond-Point. — In the book going under the name of the 
alleged philosopher Lie-tse, which in the text now before us is hardly 
earlier than the Han period, we read the following story: 2 "When King 
Mu of the Chou Dynasty (1001-945 B.C.) was on an expedition against 
the Western Jung, the latter presented him with a sword of kun-wu 
^tL$p"^j5$- and with fire-proof cloth (asbestos). The sword was one 
foot and eight inches in length, was forged from steel, and had a red 
blade; when handled, it would cut hard stone (jade) as though it were 
merely clayish earth." The object of these notes is to discuss the nature 
of the substance kun-wu. Asbestine stuffs were received by the Chinese 
from the Roman Orient, and likewise the curious tales connected with 
them. If asbestos came from that direction, our first impression in 
the matter is that also the substance kun-wu appears to have been de- 
rived from the same quarter; and this supposition will be proved correct 
by a study of Chinese traditions. 



1 It is interesting that the Chinese, while they worked jade and porcelain, and, 
as will be seen farther below, also pearls, by means of diamond-points, did not know 
the fact that the latter can cut glass, — perhaps merely for the reason that they 
never understood how to make plate-glass. The ancients did not cut glass, either, 
with the diamond, and this practice does not seem to have originated before the 
sixteenth century (compare Beckmann*, Beitrage zur Geschichte der Erfindungen, 
Vol. Ill, p. 543). In recent times, however, the Chinese applied the diamond also 
to glass. Archdeacon Gray, in his interesting book Walks in the City of Canton 
(p. 238, Hongkong, 1875), tells how the glaziers of Canton cut with a diamond the 
designs traced with ink upon the surface of glass globes and readily effect this labor 
by running the diamond along these ink-lines. 

2 Ch. 5, T l ang wdn, at the end (compare E. Faber, Naturalismus bei den alten 
Chinesen, p. 132; L. Wieger, Peres du systeme taoiste, p. 149; A. Wylie, Chinese 
Researches, pt. m, p. 142). The work of Lie-tse is first mentioned as a book in eight 
chapters in TsHen Han shu (Ch. 30, p. 12 b). 



The Diamond-Point 29 

The kun-wu sword of Lie-tse has repeatedly tried the ingenuity of 
sinologues. Hirth, 1 who accepted the text at its surface value, re- 
garded this sword as the oldest example in Chinese records of a weapon 
made from iron or steel ; and while the passage could not be regarded as 
testimony for the antiquity of the sword-industry in China, it seems to 
him to reflect the legendary views of that epoch and to hint at the fact 
that the forging of swords in the iron-producing regions of the north-west 
of China was originally invested in the hands of the Huns. Thus 
Hirth finally arrived at the conclusion that the kun-wu sword may 
actually mean "sword of the Huns." Faber, the first translator of 
Lie-tse, regarded it as a Damascus blade; and Forke 2 accepted this 
view. F. Porter Smith 3 was the first to speak of a kun-wu stone, 
intimating that "extraordinary stories are told of a stone called kun-wu, 
large enough to be made into a knife, very brilliant, and able to cut 
gems with ease." He also grouped this stone correctly with the dia- 
mond, but did not cope with the problem involved. 

The Shi chou ki ("Records of Ten Insular Realms"), a fantastic 
description of foreign lands, attributed to the Taoist adept Tung-fang 
So, who was born in 168 B.C., 4 has the following story: " On the Floating 
Island (Liu chou) which is situated in the Western Ocean is gathered a 
quantity of stones called kun-wu tL •§* J5 • When fused, this stone 
turns into iron, from which are made cutting-instruments brilliant and 
reflecting light like crystal, capable of cutting through objects of hard 
stone (jade) as though they were merely clayish earth." 5 

Li Shi-ch^n, in his Pen ts'ao kang niu* quotes the same story in his 
notice of the diamond, and winds up with the explanation that the 
kun-wu stone is the largest of diamonds. The text of the Shi chou ki, 
as quoted by him, offers an important variant. According to his 
reading, kun-wu stones occur in the Floating Sand (Liu-sha) of the 
Western Ocean. 7 The latter term, as already shown, in the Chinese 

1 Chinesische Ansichten uber Bronzetrommeln, pp. 20, 21. 

2 Mitteilungen des Seminars, Vol. VII, 1, p. 162. This opinion was justly criti- 
cised by the late E. Huber (Bull, de VEcolefrangaise, Vol. IV, p. 1129). 

3 Contributions toward the Materia Medica of China, p. 75. 

4 The work is adopted in the Taoist Canon (L. Wieger, Taoisme, Vol. I, No. 593). 
The authorship of Tung-fang So is purely legendary, and the book is doubtless 
centuries later. Exactly the same text is given also in the Lung yii ho Vu (quoted in 
Yuan kien lei han, Ch. 323, p. 1; and in the commentary to Shi ki, Ch. 117, p. 2 b), 
a work which appears to have existed in the fourth or fifth century (see Bretschnei- 
der, Bot. Sin., pt. 1, No. 500). 

5 P l ei win yilnfu, Ch. 100 A, p. 16; or Yuan kien lei han, Ch. 26, p. 32 b. 

6 Ch. io, p. 12. 

7 Also the Wu li siao shi (Ch. 8, p. 22) has this reading. 



30 The Diamond 

records relative to the Hellenistic Orient, refers to the Mediterranean; 
and Liu-sha is well known as a geographical term of somewhat vague 
definition, first used in the Annals of the Later Han Dynasty, and said 
to be in the west of Ta Ts'in, the Chinese designation of the Roman 
Orient. 1 Liu-sha, in my opinion, is the model of Liu chou, the Floating 
Island being distilled from Floating Sand in favor of the Ten Islands 
mechanically constructed in that fabulous book. Accordingly, we have 
here a distinct tradition relegating the kun-wu stone to the Anterior 
Orient; and Li Shi-ch&i's identification with the diamond appears 
plausible to a high degree. His opinion is strongly corroborated by 
another text cited by him. This is the Hiian chung ki by Kuo* of the 
fifth century, who reports as follows: "The country of Ta Ts'in pro- 
duces diamonds (kin-kang), termed also 'jade-cutting swords or knives.' 
The largest reach a length of over a foot, the smallest are of the size of 
a rice or millet grain. 3 Hard stone can be cut by means of it 
all round, and on examination it turns out that it is the largest of 
diamonds. This is what the Buddhist priests substitute for the tooth 
of Buddha." 4 Chou Mi, quoted above regarding the legend of the Dia- 

1 Hirth, China and the Roman Orient, pp. 42, 292. F. de Mely (Lapidaires 
chinois, p. 124) translates "River Liu sha," and omits the "Western Ocean." The 
term Liu-sha existed in early antiquity and occurs for the first time in the Shu king, 
chap. Yii kung (Legge, Chinese Classics, Vol. Ill, pp. 132, 133, 150), denoting the 
then known farthest west of the country, the desert extending west of the district 
of Tun-huang in Kan-su. It is cited also in the elegy Li sao by Ku Yuan (xin, 89; 
Legge, Journal R. As. Soc, 1895, pp. 595, 863), in the records of the Buddhist pil- 
grims (Chavannes, Religieux £minents, p. 12), and in the memoirs of the mediaeval 
travellers (Bretschneider, Mediaeval Researches, Vol. I, p. 27; Vol. II, p. 144). 
See also Pelliot, Journal asiatique, 1914 (Mai-Juin), p. 505. 

2 His personal name is unknown. 

3 Pliny (xxxvii, 15, § 57) speaks of a kind of diamond as large as a grain of 
millet (milii magnitudine) and called cenchros; that is, the Greek word for "millet." 

4 F. de Mely (Lapidaires[chinois, p. 124) incorrectly understands by this passage 
that the bonzes of India adorn with diamonds the tooth of Buddha. In fact, a dia- 
mond itself was passed off as Buddha's-tooth relic. A specific case to this effect is 
on record: "In the peirod Ch6ng-kuan (627-650) there was a Brahmanic priest 
who asserted that he had obtained a tooth of Buddha which when struck resisted any 
blow with unheard-of strength. Fu Yi heard of it, and said to his son, ' It is not 
a tooth of Buddha; I have heard that the diamond (kin-kang shi) is the strongest of 
all objects, that nothing can resist it, and that only an antelope-horn can break it; 
you may proceed to make the experiment by knocking it, and it will crash and 
break' " (P'e* win yiinfu, Ch. 100 a, p. 40 b). Fu Yi, who was a resolute opponent 
of Buddhism and was raised to the office of grand historiographer by the founder of 
the T'ang dynasty (he died in 639; see Memoir es concernant les Chinois, Vol. V, 
pp. 122, 159; Legge, Journal Roy. As. Soc, 1893, p. 800), was certainly right. 
Compare H. Dore, Recherches sur les superstitions en Chine, Vol. VIII, p. 310. 
Also Palladius (Chinese-Russian Dictionary, Vol. II, p. 203 a) is inexact in saying 
that the Buddhists passed off the diamond as Buddha's tooth in China, where the 
diamond was unknown. Regarding Buddha's-tooth relic, besides the various 



The Diamond-Point 



3i 



mond Valley, states, " The workers in jade polish jade by the persevering 
application of river-gravel, and carve it by means of a diamond-point. 
Its shape is like that of the ordure of rodents; 1 it is of very black color, 
and is at once like stone and like iron." Chou Mi apparently speaks 
of the impure, black form of the diamond, which is still used by us for 
industrial purposes, the tipping of drills and similar boring-instruments. 2 
These texts render it sufficiently clear that the kun-wu stone of the Shi 
chou ki, which is found in the Hellenistic Orient, is the diamond, 3 and 
that the cutting-instrument made from it is a diamond-point. The 
alleged transmutation of the stone into iron is further elucidated by the 
much-discussed passage of Pliny, "When by a lucky chance the diamond 
happens to be broken, it is triturated into such minute splinters that 
they can hardly be sighted. These are much demanded by gem- 
engravers and are enclosed in iron. There is no hard substance that 
they could not easily cut by means of this instrument." 4 



accounts of Huan Tsang, see Fa Hien, Ch. 38 (Legge, Record of Buddhistic King- 
doms, pp. 105-107); Chavannes, Memoire sur les religieux £minents, p. 55; de 
Groot, Album Kern, p. 134; Yule and Cordier, Book of Ser Marco Polo, Vol. II, 
PP- 3 J 9> 3 2 9~33°» etc. The Pali Chronicle of Ceylon describes a statue of Buddha, 
in which the body and members were made of 4 jewels of different colors; the com- 
mentary adds that the teeth were made of diamonds (W. Geiger, Mahavamsa, 
p. 204). It accordingly was an Indian idea (not an artifice conceived in China) 
that the diamond could be substituted for Buddha's tooth. It is curious that 
Pseudo- Aristotle warns against taking the diamond in the mouth, because it destroys 
the teeth (Ruska, Steinbuch des Aristoteles, p. 150). The poet Su Shi (1036-1101), 
in his work Wulei siang kan chi (Wylie, Notes, p. 165), remarks that antelope- 
horn is able to break Buddha's tooth to pieces; in this case, Buddha's tooth is a 
synonyme for the diamond, and we have an echo of Ko Hung's legend above referred 
to (p. 21). 

1 Shu shi MiK, incorrectly rendered by F. de Mely (Lapidaires chinois, p. 124) 
by "arrow-point." The word shi is here not "arrow," but "ordure, dung" (shi in 
the third tone) ; the text of the Wu li siao shi indeed writes shi M. » which is the prop- 
er character; and Ko chi king yuan (Ch. 33, p. 3 b), in quoting the same text of Chou 
Mi, offers the variant shufin «^J|, which has the same meaning. 

8 Known in the trade as "bort," — defective diamonds or fragments of diamonds 
which are useless as gems. 

3 The reflective and refractive power of the diamond is well illustrated in the 
definition of that book, "brilliant and reflecting light like crystal." The coincidence 
with Pliny's (xxxvii, 15, § 56) description of the Indian adamas is remarkable, 
"which occurs not in gold, but in a substance somewhat cognate to crystal, not 
differing from the latter in its transparent coloration" (Indici non in auro nascentis 
et quadam crystalli cognatione, siquidem et colore tralucido non differt). The 
opinion that diamond, according to its composition, was a glass-like stone of the 
nature of rock-crystal, prevailed in Europe till the end of the eighteenth century, 
when it was refuted by Bergmann in 1777, and experiments demonstrated that the 
diamond is a combustible body (F. von Kobell, Geschichte der Mineralogie, p. 388). 

4 Cum feliciter contigit rumpere, in tam parvas friatur crustas, ut cerni vix 
possint. Expetuntur hae scalptoribus ferroque includuntur, nullam non duritiam 



32 The Diamond 

Dioscorides of the first century a.d. distinguishes four kinds of 
diamonds, the third of which is called " ferruginous" because it re- 
sembles iron, but iron is heavier; it is found in Yemen. According to 
him, the adamantine fragments are stuck into iron handles, being thus 
ready to perforate stones, rubies, and pearls. 1 The concept of a mysteri- 
ous association of the diamond with iron survived till our middle ages. 
Konrad von Megenberg, in his Book of Nature, written in 1349-50, 2 
observes that, according to the treatises on stones, the virtue of the 
diamond is much greater if its foundation be made of iron, in case it is 
to be set in a ring ; but the ring should be of gold to be in keeping with the 
dignity of the stone. 

If we now glance back at the text of Lie-tse, from which we started, 
we shall easily recognize that the kun-wu sword mentioned in it is in 
fact only a mask for the diamond-point; for Lie-tse, with reference to 
this sword, avails himself of exactly the same definition as the Shi chou 
hi, expressed in the identical words, — "cutting hard stone (jade) as 
though it were merely clayish earth," — and the jade-cutting knife {tad) 
is unequivocally identified with the diamond in the Hilan chung ki. 
The passage in Lie-tse, therefore, rests on a misunderstanding or a too 
liberal interpretation of the word tao 7) , which means a cutting-instru- 
ment in the widest sense, used for carving, chopping, trimming, paring, 
scraping, etc. It may certainly mean a dagger or sword with a single 
edge; and Lie-tse, or whoever fabricated the book inscribed with his 
name, exaggerated it into the double-edged sword kien. 3 Then he was 
certainly obliged to permit himself the further change of making this 
sword of tempered steel; 4 and by prefixing the classifier kin ('metal') to 
the words kun and to, the masquerade was complete for eluding the 
most perspicacious sinologues. 5 Lie-tse's kun-wu sword is a romantic 

ex facili cavantes (xxxvn, 15, § 60). It is not necessary, as proposed by F. de Mely 
(Lapidaires chinois, p. 257), to make a distinction between kin kang shi ("diamond") 
and kin kang ts'uan ("emery"). It plainly follows from the Chinese texts that the 
latter is the diamond-point (see below, p. 34). 

1 Compare L. Leclerc, Traite des simples, Vol. Ill, p. 272. 

2 Ed. of F. Pfeiffer, p. 433. 

3 The conception of the diamond as a sword had perhaps been conveyed to 
China from an outside quarter. In the language of the Kirgiz, the word almas, 
designating the "diamond" (from Arabic almas), has also the significance "steel" 
(in the same manner as the Greek adamas, from which the Arabic word is derived), 
and ak almas ("white diamond") is a poetical term for a "sword" (W. Radloff, 
Worterbuch der Turk-Dialecte, Vol. I, col. 438). 

4 This metamorphosis was possibly somehow connected with the original 
meaning "steel" inherent in the Greek word adamas. 

6 The missing link is found in another passage of the Shi chou ki, where the same 
event is described as in Lie-tse. It runs as follows: "At the time of King Mu of the 



The Diamond-Point 33 

fiction evolved from the kun-wu diamond-points heard of and imported 
from the Hellenistic Orient. It has nothing to do with the sword 
industry of the Huns or Chinese, as speculated by Hirth; nor is it a 
Damascus blade, as suggested by Faber and Forke. Such books as 
Lie-tse and many others of like calibre cannot be utilized as historical 
sources for archaeological argumentation; their stories must first be 
analyzed, critically dissected, scrutinized, and correlated with other 
texts, Chinese as well as Western, to receive that stamp of valuation 
which is properly due them. It is now clear also why Lie-tse links the 
kun-wu sword with asbestos, inasmuch as the two are products of the 
Hellenistic Orient. The circumstance that both are credited to King 
Mu is a meaningless fable. King Mu was the chosen favorite and 
hero of Taoist legend-makers, to whose name all marvellous objects 
of distant trade were attached (in the same manner as King Solomon 
and Alexander in the West). The introduction of the Western Jung 
on this occasion possibly is emblematic of the intermediary r61e which 
was played by Turkish tribes in the transmission of goods from the 
Anterior Orient and Persia to China. 1 

As regards the history of the diamond, we learn that the Chinese, 
before they became acquainted with the stone as a gem, received the 
first intimation of it in the shape of diamond-points for mechanical 
work, sent from the Hellenistic Orient, — known first (at the time 
of the Han) under the name kun-wu; in the third century (under the 
Tsin), as will be shown below, under the name kin-kang; and later 
on, as kin-kang tsuan. It seems that the Chinese made little or no 



Chou dynasty the Western Hu presented a jade-cutting knife of kun-wu, one foot 
long, capable of cutting jade as though it were merely clayish earth." In this text 
(quoted in P'ei win yiinfu, Ch. 19, p. 13) the word tao is used, and kun-wu is plainly 
written without the classifiers kin. Here we have the model after which Lie-tse 
worked. The term kun-wu tao, written in the same style as in Shi chou ki, appears 
once more in the biography of the painter Li Kung-lin (Sung shi, Ch. 444, p. 7), who 
died in 1106. The Emperor had obtained a seal of nephrite, which his scholars, 
despite long deliberations, could not decipher till Li Kung-lin diagnosed it as the 
famous seal of Ts'in Shi Huang-ti made by Li Se in the third century B.C. (com- 
pare Chavannes, T'oung Pao, 1904, p. 496). On this occasion the painter said 
that the substance nephrite is hard, but not quite so hard as a diamond-point 
(kun-wu tao). 

1 It is interesting that the diamond appears also in the cycle of Si-wang-mu, the 
legendary, motives of which, in my opinion, to a large extent go back to the Hel- 
lenistic Orient. In the Han Wu-ti nei chuan (p. 2 b; ed. of Shou shan ko ts'ung shu), 
the goddess appears wearing in her girdle a magic seal of diamond (kin-kang ling si). 
The work in question, carried by an unfounded tradition into the Han period, is a 
production of much later times, but seems to have existed in the second half of the 
sixth century (Pelliot, Bulletin de I'Ecole frangaise, Vol. IX, p. 243; and Journal 
asiatique, 1912, Juillet-Aout, p. 149). 



34 The Diamond 

use of the diamond for ornamental purposes, and did not understand 
how to work it. 1 

Not only have the Chinese stories about the diamond-point, but 
there is also proof for the fact that this implement was among them a 
living reality turned to practical use. Li Sim, the author of the Hai 
yao pen ts'ao, — an account of the drugs of southern countries, written 
in the second half of the eighth century, 2 — discusses the genuine pearl 
found in the southern ocean, and observes that it can be perforated 
only by the diamond-point (kin-kang tsuan). 3 The poet Yuan Chen 
(779-831), his contemporary, says in a stanza, ''The diamond-point 
bores jade, the sword of finely tempered steel 4 severs the floating 
down." 

The preceding accounts have conveyed the impression that the 
diamond-points employed by the Chinese were plain implements of the 
shape of an awl tipped with a diamond. A different instrument is 
described in the Huan chung ki, sl work of the fifth century, which has 
already been quoted from the Ptn ts'ao kang mu. In the great cyclo- 
pedia T'ai pHng yu Ian 5 the passage of this book concerning the dia- 
mond is handed down as follows: "The diamond comes from India and 
the country of Ta Ts'in (the Roman Orient). It is styled also 'jade- 
cutting knife,' as it cuts jade like an iron knife. The largest reach a 



1 The Nan chou i wu chi (Account of Remarkable Objects in the Southern 
Provinces, by Wan Chen of the third century) states that the diamond is a stone, in 
appearance resembling a pearl, hard, sharp, and matchless; and that foreigners are 
fond of setting it in rings, which they wear in order to ward off evil influences and 
poison (T'ai pHng yu Ian, Ch. 813, p. 10). — The Polyglot Dictionary of K'ien-lung 
(Ch. 22, p. 65) discriminates between kin-kang tsuan ("diamond-point") and kin- 
kang shi ("diamond stone"). The former corresponds to Manchu paltari, Tibetan 
p'a-lam, and Mongol ocir alama; the latter, to Manchu palta wehe (wehe, "stone"), 
Tibetan rdo p^a-lam (rdo, "stone"), and Mongol alama cilagu (the latter likewise 
means "stone"). The Manchu words are artificial formations based on the Tibetan 
word. Mongol alama apparently goes back to Arabic almas (Russian almaz), Uigur 
and other Turkish dialects almas (Osmanli elmas), ultimately traceable to Greek- 
Latin adamas. Al-Akfani writes the word al-mas, the initials of the stem being 
mistaken by him for the native article al (Wiedemann, Zur Mineralogie im Islam, 
p. 218). 

2 Bretschneider, Bot. Sin., pt. 1, p. 45. 

3 Pen ts'ao kang mu, Ch. 46, p. 3 b; Ching lei ptn ts'ao, Ch. 20, fol. 12 b (edition 
of 1523). Al-Akfani says in the same manner that the pearl is perforated only by 
means of the diamond (E. Wiedemann, Zur Mineralogie im Islam, p. 221). 

4 Pin Vie. Julien's opinion that the diamond is understood by this term is erro- 
neous, and was justly antagonized by Mayers {China Review, Vol. IV, 1875, p. 175). 
Regarding this steel imported into China by Persians and Arabs, see Bretschneider, 
Mediaeval Researches, Vol. I, p. 146; Waiters, Essays on the Chinese Language, 
p. 434; Hirth and Rockhill, Chau Ju-kua, p. 19. 

5 Ch. 813, p. 10 (edition of Juan Yuan, 1812). 



Diamond and Gold 35 

length of over a foot, the smallest are of the size of a rice-grain. In 
order to cut jade, it is necessary to make a large gold ring, which is held 
between the fingers; this ring is inserted into the jade-cutting knife, 
which thus becomes fit for work." This description is not very clear, 
but I am under the impression that an instrument on the order of our 
roller-cutter is understood. 

This investigation may be regarded also as a definite solution of a 
problem of classical archaeology, which for a long time was the subject 
of an extended and heated controversy. 1 The Chinese, though receiving 
the diamond-point from the Occident, have preserved to us more copious 
notes and clearer and fuller texts regarding this subject than the classical 
authors ; and if hitherto it was possible to cast doubts on Pliny's descrip- 
tion of diamond-splinters (above, p. 31), which have been taken by 
some authors for diamond-dust, this scepticism is no longer justified in 
the light of Chinese information. What Pliny describes is indeed the 
diamond-point, and the accurate descriptions of the Chinese fully bear 
out this fact. 

Diamond and Gold. — The earliest passage of fundamental his- 
torical value in which the diamond is clearly indicated occurs in the 
Tsin k% kii chu '-§Ht5_6 >*>, 2 and is handed down to us in two dif- 
ferent versions. One of these runs as follows: 3 "In the third year of 
the period Hien-ning (a.d. 277), Tun-huang 4 presented to the Emperor 
diamonds {kin-hang). Diamonds are the rulers in the midst of gold 
(or preside in the proximity of gold ^.^"y). They are neither 
washed, 5 nor can they be melted. They can cut jade, and come from 
(or are produced in) India." The other version of this text, ascribed to 



1 The chief arguments are discussed below on pp. 42-46. 

2 The term k% kii chu M/I&. designates a peculiar class of historical records deal- 
ing with the acts of prominent persons and sovereigns. The first in existence re- 
lated to the Han Emperor Wu. The well-known Mu t'ien-tse chuan (Life of the 
Emperor Mu) agreed in style and make-up with the k'i kii chu which were extant 
under the Sui dynasty (see Sui shu,Ch. 33, p. 7). Under the Tsin quite a number of 
books of this class were written, which are enumerated in the chapter on Sui litera 
ture quoted. Judging from the titles there given, each must have embraced a 
fixed year-period; hence the passage quoted above must have been contained in the 
Tsin Hien-ning kH kii chu, that is, Annotations on the Conditions of the Period Hien- 
ning (275-280) of the Tsin Dynasty, a work in ten chapters, written by Li Kuei 
%$k,. Nineteen other titles of works of this type referring to the Tsin period, 
and apparently all contemporary records, are preserved in the Sui shu and were 
utilized at that time; thus the Tsin kH kii chu is quoted in the biography of Yii-wdn 
K'ai f XJ\%. in the Sui Annals. 

3 T'ai pHng yii Ian, Ch. 813, p. 10. 

4 In the north-western corner of Kan-su, near the border of Turkistan. 

5 As is the case with gold-sand. 



36 The Diamond 

the same work, is recorded thus: 1 "In the thirteenth year of the reign 
of the Emperor Wu (a.d. 277) there was a man in Tun-huang, who pre- 
sented the Court with diamond jewels (kin-kang pad). These are 
produced in the midst of gold (£&$>). Their color is like that of 
fluor-spar, 2 and in their appearance they resemble a grain of buck- 
wheat. Though many times fused, they do not melt. They can cut 
jade as though it were merely clayish earth." It is manifest that these 
two texts, from their coincidence chronologically, are but variants 
referring to one and the same event, under the Tsin dynasty (265-419) ; 
and it is likewise apparent that the text as preserved in the T'ai pHng yii 
Ian, the great cyclopaedia published by Li Fang in 983, bears the stamp 
of true originality, while that in the PHen tse lei pien is made up of scraps 
borrowed from the Pao p % u tse of Ko Hung (p. 21) and Lie-tse's notice 
of kun-wu (p. 28). 3 From this memorable passage we may gather 
several interesting facts: diamonds were traded in the second part of 
the third century from India by way of Turkistan to Tun-huang for 
further transmission inland into China proper; and the chief charac- 
teristics of the stone were then perfectly grasped by the Chinese, par- 
ticularly its property of cutting other hard stones. The most important 
gain, however, for our specific purpose, is the observation that a bit of 
Plinian folk-lore is mingled with the Chinese account. We are at once 
reminded of Pliny's statement that adamas was the name given to a 
nodosity of gold, sometimes, though but rarely, found in the mines in 
company with gold, and that it seemed to occur only in gold. 4 Pseudo- 



1 PHen tse lei pien, Ch. 71, p. lib. 

2 See above, p. 21. 

3 A third variant occurs in Yuan Hen lei han (Ch. 361, p. 18b), where the term 
"diamond" is, strangely enough, suppressed. This text runs thus: "The Books of 
the Tsin by Wang Yin say that in the third year of the period Hien-ning (a.d. 277), 
according to the KH kit chu, from the district of Tun-huang were brought to the 
Court objects found in gold caves, which originate in gold, are infusible, and can cut 
jade." 

4 Ita appellabatur auri nodus in metallis repertus perquam raro [comes auri] 
nee nisi in auro nasci videbatur (xxxvn, 15, § 55). Also Plato is credited with 
having entertained a similar notion (Krause, Pyrgoteles, p. 10; H. O. Lenz, Mine- 
ralogie der alten Griechen und Romer, p. 16; Blumner, Technologie, Vol. Ill, 
p. 230; and in Pauly's Realenzyklopadie, Vol. IX, col. 322); although others, like 
E. O. von Lippmann (Abhandlungen und Vortrage, Vol. II, p. 39), are not convinced 
that Plato's adamas means the diamond. The note in Bostock and Riley's trans- 
lation of Pliny (Vol. VI, p. 406) — that "this statement cannot apply to the diamond 
as known to us, though occasionally grains of gold have been found in the vicinity of 
the diamond" — is not to the point. On the contrary, it is a well-established fact 
that the diamond does occur in connection with gold; and this experience even led 
to the discovery of diamond-mines in the Ural. Owing to the similarity between the 
Brazilian and Uralic gold and platina sites, Alexander von Humboldt, in 1823, 



Diamond and Gold 37 

Aristotle, in the introduction to his work, philosophizes on the forces of 
nature attracting or avoiding one another. To these belongs gold that 
comes as gold-dust from the mine. When the diamond encounters a 
grain of it, it pounces on the gold, wherever it may be in its mine, till 
the union is accomplished. 1 QazwinI speaks of an amicable relationship 
between gold and the diamond, for if the diamond comes near gold, 
it clings to the latter; also it is said that the diamond is found only 
in gold-mines. 2 A commentary to the Shan hai king* has the following: 
"The diamond which is produced abroad belongs to the class of stones, 
but resembles gold (or metal) and has a brilliant splendor. It can cut 
jade. The foreigners wear it in the belief that it wards off evil influ- 
ences." It is therefore highly probable that the first element (kin) 
in the Chinese compound kin-kang was really intended to convey the 
meaning " gold " (not "metal" in general) , and that the term was framed 
in consequence of that tradition reaching Tun-huang, and ultimately 
traceable to classical antiquity. A further intimation as to the signifi- 
cance of the newly-coined term we receive in the same period, that of the 
Tsin dynasty, when the stone and its nature were perfectly known in 
China. Indeed, it is several times alluded to in the official Annals of 
the Tsin Dynasty (265-419). At that time "a saying was current 
among the people of Liang, 4 that the principle of the diamond of the 
Western countries is strength, and that for this reason the name kin- 
kang was conferred upon it in Liang." 5 In combining this information 
with the previous text of the Tsin kH ku chu, we arrive at the conclusion 
that the term kin-kang reflects two traditions, — the word kin referring 
to the origin of the diamond in gold, the word kang alluding to its 



expressed the idea that the diamond accompanying these two metals in Brazil should 
be discovered also in the Ural; under the guidance of this prognostic, the first dia- 
monds were really found there in 1829 (Bauer, Edelsteinkunde, 2d ed., p. 292). 
The diamonds of California have been found in association with gold-bearing gravels, 
while washing for gold (Farrington, Gems and Gem Minerals, p. 87). The state- 
ment of Pliny proves that he indeed speaks of the diamond. 

1 J. Ruska, Steinbuch des Aristoteles, p. 129. 

2 Ruska, Steinbuch aus der Kosmographie des al-Qazwini, p. 6. 

3 Quoted in Yuan kien lei han, Ch. 26, p. 46. 

4 Liang is the name of one of the nine provinces (chou) into which China was 
anciently divided by the culture-hero and semi-historical Emperor Yii, comprising 
what is at present Sze-ch'uan and parts of Shen-si, Kan-su, and Hu-pei (regarding 
the boundaries of Liang-chou, see particularly Legge, Chinese Classics, Vol. Ill, 
pp. 1 19-120). Liang-chou was one of the nineteen provinces into which China was 
divided under the Tsin dynasty, with Wu-wei (in Kan-su) as capital (compare Piton, 
China Review, Vol. XI, p. 299). 

5 Tsin shu, Ch. 14, p. 16. The Annals of the Tsin Dynasty were compiled by 
Fang Hiian-ling (578-648). 



38 The Diamond 

extreme hardness, likewise emphasized by Pliny; kin-kang, accordingly, 
means "the hard stone originating in gold." 1 

In our middle ages we meet the notion of adamantine gold which is 
credited with the same properties as the diamond. In the famous letter, 
purported to have been addressed by Prester John to the Byzantine 
Emperor Manuel, and written about 1165, a floor in the bakery of the 
alleged palace of the Royal Presbyter in India is described as being of 
adamantine gold, the strength of which can be destroyed neither by 
iron, nor fire, nor any other remedy, save buck's blood. 2 

The Term "Kun-wu." — It is difficult to decide the origin of the 
word kun-wu. It would be tempting to regard it as a transcription of 
the Greek or West-Asiatic word denoting the diamond-point; unfor- 
tunately, however, the Greek designation for this implement is not 
known. More probably the Chinese term may be derived from an idiom 
spoken in Central Asia; at any rate, the word itself was employed 
in China before the introduction of diamond-points from the West. In 
a poem of Se-ma Siang-ju, who died in 117 B.C., we meet a precious 
stone named kun-wu jj^ J§- , as occurring in Sze-ch'uan, on the nature 
of which the opinions of the commentators dissent. 3 The Han shu yin i 
explains it as the name of a mountain which produces excellent gold. 
Shi-tse or Shi Kiao (about 280 B.C.) explains it as "gold" or "metal of 
Kun-wu" tL-Tcxkj^? ', which may mean that he takes the latter as 



1 In the study of Chinese texts some precaution is necessary in the handling of the 
term kin kang, which does not always refer to the diamond, but sometimes presents 
a complete sentence with the meaning "gold is hard." Three examples of this kind 
are known to me. One occurs in Nan shi (biography of Chang T'ung; see Pien tse 
lei pien, Ch. 71, p. lib): "Gold is hard, water is soft: this is the difference in their 
natural properties." In Tsin shu (Ch. 95, p. 13 b; biography of Wang Kia) we meet 
the sentence £r$):fcjjj!.. This, of course, could mean "the diamond is conquered 
by fire," — a sentence which, from the standpoint of our scientific experience, would 
be perfectly correct; from a Chinese viewpoint, however, it would be sheer non- 
sense, the Chinese as well as the ancients entertaining the belief that fire does not 
affect the diamond (p. 23). The passage really signifies, "Gold is hard, yet is 
overcome (melted) by fire." The correctness of this translation is confirmed by a 
passage in a work Yi shi fing kio (quoted in Pien tse lei pien, I. c), where the same say- 
ing occurs in parallelism with two preceding sentences: "Branches of trees fall and 
return to their roots; water flows from the roots and returns to the branches; gold 
is hard, yet is overcome by fire; every one returns to his native place." 

2 Pavimentum vero est de auro adamantino, fortitudo cuius neque ferro neque 
igne neque alio medicamine potest confringi sine yrcino [hircino] sanguine (P. 
Zarncke, Der Priester Johannes I, p. 93). Compare the analogous passage in the 
same document, "Infra domum sunt duae magnae molae, optime ad molendum 
dispositae, factae de adamante lapide, quern namque lapidem neque lapis neque 
ignis neque ferrum potest confringere." Both these passages are not contained in 
the original draught of the letter, but are interpolations from manuscripts of the 
thirteenth century. 

3 Shi ki, Ch. 117, p. 2 b. 



The Term "Kun-wu" 39 

the name of the locality whence the ore came. Se-ma Piao (240-305) 
interprets it as a stone ranking next to jade. Then follows in his text 
the story of kun-wu in Liu-sha, quoted from the Lung yii ho Vu, which 
has been discussed above. I do not know whether this is a separate 
editorial comment, or was included in the commentary of Se-ma Piao. 
At all events, the fact is borne out that the word kun-wu in the Ski ki, 
and that referring to the West, are considered by the Chinese as identical, 
and that the mode of writing (with or without the classifier 'jade') is 
immaterial. 1 We know that in times of old numerous characters were 
written without the classifiers, which were but subsequently added. 
The writing kun-wu in Lie-tse with the classifier 'metal' plainly mani- 
fests itself as a secondary move, 2 and the simple kun-wu without any 
determinative classifier doubtless represents the primary stage. This 
is shown also by the existence of a character £tL, where the element 
kun is combined with the classifier 'stone.' 3 If in the Ski ki the word 
kun-wu is linked with the classifier 'jade;' and if, further, this term ap- 
pears coupled with nine other designations of stones, the whole series 
of ten being introduced by the words " following are the stones," — the 
interpretation "gold" is absurd, and that of Se-ma Piao has only a 
chance. It would therefore be possible that kun-wu originally served 
for naming some hard stone indigenous to Sze-ch'uan, and was subse- 
quently transferred to the imported diamond-point. The name for 
the stone may have been inspired by that of the mountain Kun-wu, 
stones being frequently named in China for the mountains or localities 
from which they are derived. On the other hand, there is a text in 
which the name Kun-wu in this connection is conceived as that of a clan 
or family by the addition of the word ski 1\ . This is the Chou sku* 
which relates the tradition that the Western Countries offered fire-proof 
cloth (asbestos), and the Kun-wu Clan presented jade-cutting knives. 
It seems certain that this version has no basis in reality, but presents a 
makeshift to account for the troublesome word kun-wu. How it sprang 
into existence may be explained from the fact that there was in ancient 
times, under the Hia dynasty, a rebel by the name Kun-wu, mentioned 
in the Shi king and Ski ki; 5 but it is obvious that this family name bears 

1 In TsHen Han shu, where the same text is reproduced, kun-wu is written without 
the classifiers. 

2 In all likelihood this is merely a device of later editors of Lie-tse's text. There 
are editions in which the plain kun-wu without the classifier is written (see P'ei wen 
yiinfu, Ch. 91, p. 16b). 

3 P'ei win yiin fu, Ch. 100 A, p. 25. 

4 Regarding this work see Chavannes, Memoires historiques de Se-ma Ts'ien, 
Vol. V, p. 457. The passage is quoted in Po wu chi, Ch. 2, p. 4b (Wu-ch'ang edition). 

5 Legge, Chinese Classics, Vol. Ill, p. 642; Chavannes, I. c, Vol. I, p. 180. 



40 The Diamond 

no relation to the name of the mountain in Sze-ch'uan, the stone hailing 
from it, and the diamond-point coming from the West. 1 

Ko Hung informs us that "the Emperor Wen of the Wei dynasty 
(220-226), who professed to be well informed with regard to every 
object in nature, declared that there were no such things in the world 
as a knife that would cut jade, and fire-proof cloth; which opinion he 
recorded in an essay on the subject. Afterwards it happened that both 
these articles were brought to court within a year; the Emperor was 
surprised, and caused the essay to be destroyed; this course being un- 
avoidable when he found the statements to be without foundation." 2 
General Liang-ki, who lived at the time of the Emperor Huan (147-167), 
is said to have possessed asbestos and "jade-cutting knives." 3 The 
book handed down under the name of K'ung-ts'ung-tse 4 contains the 
tradition that the Prince of Ts'in obtained from the Western Jung a 
sharp knife capable of cutting jade as though it were wood. The poet 
Kiang Yen (443-504) wrote a poem on a bronze sword, in the preface 
of which he observes that there are also red knives of cast copper capable 
of cutting jade like clayish earth, — apparently a reminiscence of the 
passage of Lie-tse, only the latter 's "iron" is replaced by "copper." 
In the preceding texts the term kun-wu is avoided, and only the phrase 
"jade-cutter" (ko yii tad) has survived. 

Toxicology of the Diamond. — Contrary to his common practice, 
Li Shi-cMn does not state whether the diamond is poisonous or not. 
As to the curative powers of the stone, he asserts that when set into 
hair-spangles, finger-rings, or girdle-ornaments, it wards off uncanny 
influences, evil, and poisonous vapors. 5 On this point the Chinese 
agree with Pliny, according to whom adamas overcomes and neutralizes 



1 Also Hirth (Chinesische Ansichten uber Bronzetrommeln, p. 20) persuaded 
himself that this prpper name is not connected with what he believed to be the 
"kun-wu sword." It is difficult, however, to credit the theory that the name kun-wu, 
as tentatively proposed by Hirth, could be a transcription on an equal footing with 
Hiung-nu (Huns). Aside from phonetic obstacles, the fact remains that the Chinese 
notices of kun-wu do not point in the direction of the Huns, but refer to Liu-sha in 
Ta Ts'in (the Roman Orient). 

2 A. Wylie, Chinese Researches, pt>. in, p. 151. 

3 Yuan kien lei han, Ch. 225, p. 2; and Wylie, /. c, p. 143. 

4 The son of K'ung Fu, a descendant of Confucius in the ninth degree, who died 
in 210 B.C. (Giles, Biographical Dictionary, p. 401). It is doubtful whether the book 
which we nowadays possess under the title K'ung- ts'ung-tse (incorporated in the 
Han Wei ts'ung shu) is the one which he wrote (compare Chavannes, M£moires 
historiques de Se-ma Ts'ien, Vol. V, p. 432). The passage referred to is quoted 
in P*ei win yiin fu, Ch. 91, p. 21. 

6 The source for this statement doubtless is the Nan chou i wu chi, quoted on 
p. 34, which ascribes this notion to foreigners. 



Imitation Diamonds 41 

poisons, dispels insanity, and drives away groundless apprehensions 
from the mind. 1 The coincidence would not be so remarkable were it 
not for the fact that in mediaeval Mohammedanism the theory of dia- 
monds being poisonous had been developed. This idea first looms up 
in Pseudo-Aristotle, who is also the first to stage the snakes in the 
Diamond Valley, and cautions his readers against taking the diamond 
in their mouths, because the saliva of the snakes adheres to it so that it 
deals out death. 2 According to al-Berunl, the people of Khorasan and 
Iraq employ the diamond only for purposes of boring and poisoning. 3 
This superstition was carried by the Mohammedans into India, where 
the belief had prevailed that the diamond wards off from its wearer 
the danger of poison. 4 The people of India now adhere to the super- 
stition that diarhond-dust is at once the least painful, the most active, 
and most infallible of all poisons. In our own time, when Mulhar Rao of 
Baroda attempted to poison Col. Phayre, diamond-dust mixed with 
arsenic was used. 5 A. Boetius de Boot (1550-1632) 6 was the first 
modern mineralogical writer who refuted the old misconception, de- 
monstrating that the diamond has no poisonous properties whatever. 

Imitation Diamonds. — While all the principal motives of the 
lore garnered by the Chinese around the diamond come from classical 
regions, I can discover but a single notion traceable to India. Pliny 
has written a short chapter on the method of testing precious stones, 7 
but he does not tell us how to discriminate between real and counterfeit 
diamonds. According to the Hindu mineralogists, iron, topaz, hya- 
cinth, rock-crystal, cat's-eye, and glass served for the imitation of the 
diamond; and the forgery was disclosed by means of acids, scratching, 

1 Adamas et venena vincit atque inrita facit et lymphationes abigit metusque 
vanos expellit a mente (xxxvn, 15, § 61). 

2 J. Ruska, Steinbuch des Aristoteles, p. 150; and Diamant in der Medizin 
(Festschrift Baas, pp. 121-125); likewise al-Akfanl (E. Wiedemann, Zur Mineralogie 
im Islam, p. 219). Qazwlnl (J. Ruska, Steinbuch aus der Kosmographie des al- 
Kazwini, p. 35) quotes Ibn Sina as saying that the venomous property imputed by 
Aristotle to the diamond is a hollow pretence, and that Aristotle is ignorant of the 
fact that snake-poison, after flowing out, loses its baleful effect, especially when some 
time has elapsed. This sensible remark does not prevent Qazwlnl, in copying his 
second anonymous source relating to the diamond, from alleging that "it is an 
extremely mortal poison." 

3 E. Wiedemann, Der Islam, Vol. II, p. 352. 

4 L. Finot, Lapidaires indiens, p. 10. Varahamihira (a.d. 505-587) states that 
a good diamond dispels foes, danger from thunder-strokes or poison, and promises 
many enjoyments (H. Kern, Verspreide Geschriften, Vol. II, p. 98). 

5 W. Crooke, Things Indian, p. 379. 

6 Gemmarum et lapidum historia, p. 124 (ed. of A. Toll, Lugduni Batavorum, 
1636) ; compare also J. Ruska, Festschrift Baas, pp. 125-127. 

7 xxxvn, 76. 



42 The Diamond 

and the touchstone. The Agastimata is specific on this point by 
anathematizing forgers and recommending the following recipe: "The 
vile man who fabricates false diamonds will sink into an awful hell, 
charged with a sin equal to murder. When a connoisseur believes that 
he recognizes an artificial diamond, he should test it by means of acids 
or vinegar, or through application of heat: if false, it will lose color; if 
true, it will double its lustre. It may also be washed and brought in 
contact with rice: thus it will at once be reduced to a powder." 1 The 
TsH tung ye yii of Chou Mi, previously quoted, imparts this advice: 
"In order to distinguish genuine from counterfeit diamonds, expose the 
stone to red-heat and steep it in vinegar: if it retains its former appear- 
ance and does not split, it is real. When the diamond-point happens 
to become blunt, it should be heated till it reddens; and on cooling off, 
it will again have a sharp point." 2 The first experiment is identical 
with that proposed in the Sanskrit text. As to the second, we again 
encounter a striking parallel in Pliny: "There is such great difference 
in stones, that some cannot be engraved by means of iron, others may 
be cut only with a blunt graver, all, however, by means of the diamond; 
heating of the graver considerably intensifies the effect." 3 

Acquaintance of the Ancients with the Diamond. — The 
previous notes have been based on the supposition that the stone 
termed adamas by the ancients, and that called kun-wu (or subsequently 
kin-kang) by the Chinese, are identical with what we understand by 
"diamond." This identification, however, has been called into doubt 
by students of classical antiquity as well as by sinologues. It is there- 
fore necessary to scrutinize their arguments. Our investigation has 
clearly brought out two points, — first, that the Chinese notices of the 
diamond-point (kun-wu) agree with Pliny's account of the same imple- 
ment ; and, second, that Chinese traditions regarding the stone kin-kang 
perfectly coincide with those of the ancients and the Arabs concerning 
adamas and almas, the latter word being derived from the former. If, 



1 L. Finot, Lapidaires indiens, p. xxx. 

2 F. de Mely (Lapidaires chinois, p. 124) has misunderstood this passage by- 
referring it to the stone in lieu of the diamond-point. " S'il a des facettes emouss£es, 
on le chauffe au rouge, on le laisse refroidir, et ses facettes redeviennent aigues." 
This point of view is untenable. First, the facets of a diamond are neither blunt nor 
sharp; second, a faceted diamond, as will be shown in detail farther on, was always 
unknown to the Chinese, who for the first time noticed cut diamonds in the possession 
of the Macao Portuguese; and, third, the parallelism with Pliny proves my conception 
of the Chinese text to be correct. 

3 lam tanta differentia est, ut aliae ferro scalpi non possint, aliae non nisi retuso, 
omnes autem adamante. Plurimum vero in iis terebrarum proficit fervor (xxxvn, 
76, § 200). Compare Krause, Pyrgoteles, p. 231. 



Acquaintance of the Ancients with the Diamond 43 

accordingly, the adamas of the Greeks and Romans be the diamond, 
the continuity of Western and Eastern traditions renders it plain that 
the Chinese stone kin-kang must be exactly the same; if, however, 
adamas should denote another stone, the claim for kin-kang as the 
diamond must lose its force. Eminent archaeologists like Lessing, 
Krause, Blumner, and Babelon, have championed the view that Pliny's 
adamas is our diamond. 1 The opposition chiefly came from the camp 
of mineralogists. E. S. Dana 2 remarked upon the word adamas, 
"This name was applied by the ancients to several minerals differing 
much in their physical properties. A few of these are quartz, specular 
iron ore, emery, and other substances of rather high degrees of hardness, 
which cannot now be identified. It is doubtful whether Pliny had any 
acquaintance with the real diamond. " This rather sweeping statement 
does not testify to a sound interpretation of Pliny's text. A recent 
author asserts, 3 "It is more than doubtful if the true diamond was 
known to the ancients. The consensus of the best opinions is that the 
adamas was a variety of corundum, probably our white sapphire." 
Let us now examine what the foundation of these "best opinions" is. 

The very first sentence with which Pliny opens his discussion of 
adamas is apt to refute these peremptory assertions : " The greatest value 
among the objects of human property, not merely among precious 
stones, is due to the adamas, for a long time known only to kings, and 
even to very few of these." 4 The most highly prized and valued of all 
antique gems, the "joy of opulence," 5 should be quartz, specular iron 
ore, emery, and other substances which cannot now be identified! 
The ancients were not so narrow-minded that almost any stone picked 
up anywhere in nature could have been regarded as their precious 
stone foremost in the scale of valuation. If the peoples of India like- 
wise regarded the diamond as the first of the jewels, if their treatises on 
mineralogy assign to it the first place, 6 and if Pliny is familiar with the 



1 Also so eminent an historian of natural sciences as E. O. von Lippmann 
(Abhandlungen und Vortrage, Vol. I, p. 9) grants to Pliny a knowledge of the 
diamond. 

2 System of Mineralogy, p. 3, 1850. In the new edition of 1893 this passage has 
been omitted; the first distinct mention of the diamond is ascribed to Manilius (!), 
and Pliny's adamas is allowed to be the diamond in part. 

3 D. Osborne, Engraved Gems, p. 271 (New York, 1912). 

4 Maximum in rebus humanis, non solum inter gemmas, pretium habet adamas, 
diu non nisi regibus et iis admodum paucis cognitus (xxxvn, 15, § 55; again 78, 
§ 204). 

5 Opum gaudium (Pliny, procemium of Lib. xx). 

6 L. Finot, Lapidaires indiens, p. xxiv. Buddhabhatta (ibid., p. 6) says, "Owing 
to the great virtue attributed by the sages to the diamond, it must be studied in the 



44 The Diamond 

adamas of India, it is fairly certain that also the adamas is the dia- 
mond; it is, at any rate, infinitely more certain than that the jewel 
first known only to kings should have been quartz, specular iron ore, 
emery, or some other unidentified substance. That emery is not meant 
by Pliny becomes evident from the fact that emery was well known 
to the ancients under the name naxium. 1 The Indian diamond is per- 
fectly well described by Pliny as an hexangular crystal resembling 
two pyramids placed base to base; that is, the octahedral form in 
which the diamond commonly crystallizes. 2 Whether the five other 
varieties spoken of by Pliny are real diamonds or not is of no conse- 
quence in this connection; two of these he himself brands as degen- 
erate stones. The name very probably served in this case as a bare 
trademark. Diamonds at that time were scarce, and the demand was 
satisfied by inferior stones. That such were sold under the name of 
" diamond' ' does not prove that the ancients were not acquainted with 
the true diamond. The diamond of India was known to them, 3 and 



first place." P. S. Iyengar (The Diamonds of South India, Quarterly Journal of 
the Mythic Society, Vol. Ill, 1914, p. 118) observes, "Among the Hindu, both ancient 
and modern, the diamond is always regarded as the first of the nine precious gems 
(navaratna) ." 

1 Blumner, Technologie, Vol. Ill, pp. 198, 286. In Greek it is styled afivpis. 
"Emery is the stone employed by the engravers for the cutting of gems" (Dios- 

CORIDES, CLXVl). 

2 This passage has embarrassed some interpreters of Pliny (H. O. Lenz, Mine- 
ralogie der alten Griechen und Romer, p. 163; A. Nies, Zur Mineralogie des Plinius, 
p. 5), because they did not grasp the fact that it is the octahedron which has six 
points or corners (sexangulus) ; and thus such inadequate translations were matured 
as "its highly polished hexangular and hexahedral form" (Bostock and Riley, 
Natural History of Pliny, Vol. VI, p. 406). No body, of course, can simultaneously 
be hexangular and hexahedral, the hexahedron being a cube with six sides and four 
points. Pliny's wording is plain and concise, and his description tallies with the 
Sanskrit definition of the diamond as "six-cornered" (shatkona, shatkoti, or shadara; 
see R. Garbe [Die indischen Mineralien, p. 80], who had wit enough to see that this 
term hints at the octahedron and correctly answers to the diamond; likewise L. 
FiNOT, Lapidaires indiens, p. xxvn). It is not impossible that the Plinian definition 
is an echo of a tradition hailing, with the diamond, directly from India. 

3 The Indian diamond is mentioned also by Ptolemy, according to whom the 
greatest bulk of diamonds was found with the Savara tribe (Pauly, Realenzyklo- 
padie, Vol. I, col. 344), by the Periplus Maris Erythraei (56, ed. Fabricius, p. 98), 
and by Dionysius Periegetes (second century a.d.) in his poem describing the 
habitable earth (Orbis descriptio, Verse 11 19). The diamond is doubtless included 
also among the precious stones cast by the sea upon the shores of India, mentioned 
by Curtius Rufus, and among Strabo's precious stones, some of which the Indians 
collect from among the pebbles of the river, and others of which they dig out of the 
earth (McCrindle, Invasion of India by Alexander, pp. 187-188). Alexander's 
expedition made the Greeks familiar with the diamond, hence it is mentioned by 
Theophrastus (De lapidibus, 19), who compares the carbuncle with the adamas. I 
do not agree with the objections raised by some authors against Theophrastus' 



Acquaintance of the Ancients with the Diamond 45 

the Periplus l expressly relates of the exportation from India of diamonds 
and hyacinths. Further, the Annals of the T'ang Dynasty 2 come to 
our aid with the statement that India has diamonds, sandal-wood, and 
saffron, and barters these articles with Ta Ts'in (the Roman Orient), 
Fu-nan, and Kiao-chi. The fact therefore remains, as attested by the 
Chinese, that India shipped diamonds to the West. 3 

There is, moreover, in the chapter of Pliny, positive evidence voicing 
the cause of the diamond. He is familiar with the hardness of the 
stone, which is beyond expression (quippe duritia est inenarrabilis) ; 
and, owing to its indomitable powers, the Greeks bestowed on it the 
name adamas (" unconquerable"). 4 He is acquainted, as set forth on 
p. 31, with the technical use of diamond splinters, which cut the very 
hardest substances known. If one of the apocryphal varieties of the 
diamond, styled siderites (from Greek sideros, "iron"), a stone which 
shines like iron, is reported to differ in its main properties from the true 
diamond, inasmuch as it will break when struck by the hammer, and 
admit of being perforated by other kinds of adamas, this observation 

acquaintance with the diamond. H. Bretzl (Botanische Forschungen des Ale- 
xanderzuges) has well established the fact that he commanded an admirable knowl- 
edge of the vegetation of India; thus he may well have heard also of the Indian 
diamond from his same informants. It is not necessary to assume, however, that he 
knew the diamond from autopsy, as he does not describe it, but mentions it only 
passingly in the single passage referred to; also H. O. Lenz (Mineralogie der alten 
Griechen und Romer, p. 19) holds the same opinion. It is difficult to see that 
Theophrastus could have compared with the carbuncle any other stone than the 
diamond. 

1 Ch. 56 (ed. of Fabricius, p. 98). G. F. Kunz (Curious Lore of Precious Stones, 
p. 72) observes, "The writer is disinclined to believe that the ancients knew the dia- 
mond." The same author, however, believes in the existence of diamonds in ancient 
India; but Rome then coveted all the precious stones of India, and he who accepts 
the Indian diamond as a fact must be consistent in granting it to the ancients, too. 

2 T'ang shu, Ch. 221 a, p. 10 b. 

3 Indian diamonds were apparently traded also to Ethiopia, for Pliny records 
the opinion of the ancients that the adamas was only to be discovered in the mines 
of Ethiopia between the temple of Mercury and the island of Meroe (veteres eum 
in Aethiopum metallis tantum inveniri existimavere inter delubrum Mercuri et 
insulam Meroeti). Ajasson's comment that the Ethiopia here mentioned is in reality 
India, and that the "Temple of Mercury" means the Brahmaloka, or "Temple of 
Brahma" (it does not mean "temple," but "world" of Brahma) is of course wrong. 
The reference to Meroe, the capital of Ethiopia, at once renders this opinion im- 
possible; besides, Pliny's geographical terminology is always distinct as to the use 
of India. and Ethiopia. The tradition of Ethiopic diamonds is confirmed by the 
Greek Romance of Alexander (in, 23), in which Queen Candace in the palace of 
Meroe presents Alexander with a crown of diamonds (adamas; see A. Ausfeld, Der 
griechische Alexanderroman, pp. 101, 192). 

4 Invictum is given by Pliny himself (procemium of lib. xx) as if it were a transla- 
tion of the Greek word. The Physiologus says that the stone is called adamas 
because it overpowers everything, but itself cannot be overpowered. 



46 The Diamond 

plainly bears out the fact that Pliny and his contemporaries knew very 
well the properties of the real diamond, and, moreover, that diamond 
affects diamond. In short, due allowance being made for inaccuracies 
of the tradition of the Plinian text and the imperfect state of mineral- 
ogical knowledge of that period, no fair criticism can escape from 
the conclusion that Pliny's adamas is nothing but the diamond. The 
fact that also other stones superficially resembling diamonds were at 
that time taken for or passed off as diamonds, cannot change a jot of 
this conclusion. Such substitutes have been in vogue everywhere and 
at all times, and they are not even spared our own age. 1 Pliny's con- 
demnation of these as not belonging to the genus (degeneres) and only 
enjoying the authority of the name (nominis tantum auctoritatem 
habent) reveals his discriminative critical faculty and his ability to 
distinguish the real thing from the frame-up. The perpetuity of the 
Plinian observations in regard to the adamas among the Arabs, Persians, 
Armenians, Hindu, and Chinese, who all have focussed on the diamond 
this classical lore inherited by him, throws additional evidence of most 
weighty and substantial character into the balance of the ancients' 
thorough acquaintance with the real diamond. The Arabs, assuredly, 
were not feeble-minded idiots when they coined their word almas from 
the classical adamas for the designation of the diamond, and this test of 
the language persists to the present day. The Arab traders and 
jewellers certainly were sufficiently wide awake to know what a dia- 
mond is, and their Hindu and Chinese colleagues were just as keen in 
recognizing diamonds, long before any science of mineralogy was estab- 
lished in Europe. The world-wide propagation of the same notions, 
the same lore, the same valuation connected with the stone, is iron-hard 
proof for the fact that in the West and East alike this stone was the 
diamond. This uniformity, coherence, perpetuity, and universality 
of tradition form a still mightier stronghold than the interpretation of 
the Plinian text. For this double reason there can be no doubt also that 
the kin-kang of Chinese tradition is the diamond. 

Cut Diamonds.— - Another question is whether the ancients were 
cognizant of the diamond in its rough natural state only, or whether 
they understood how to cut and -polish it. This problem has caused 



1 There were rock-crystals found in northern Europe in the seventeenth century 
and passed under the name of diamond. Johannes Scheffer (Lappland, p. 416, 
Frankfurt, 1675) tells that the lapidaries sometimes used to polish these crystals 
or diamonds of Lapland and to sell them as good diamonds, even frequently deceive 
experts with them, because they are not inferior in lustre to the Oriental stones. In 
the eighteenth century crystal was still called "false diamond" (J. Kunckell, 
Ars Vitraria, p. 451, Nurnberg, 1743). 



Cut Diamonds 47 

an endless controversy. Lessing, in his "Briefe antiquarischen 
Inhalts" (No. 32), which it is still as enjoyable as profitable seriously to 
study, has shown with a great amount of acumen that the ancients 
possessed no knowledge whatever of diamond-dust, and therefore did 
not know how to polish the diamond. This opinion, however, did not 
remain uncontradicted. The opposite view is heralded by Blumner, 1 
who argues, "Despite the lack of positive testimony, we cannot forbear 
assuming that the ancients understood, though possibly imperfectly, 
how to polish the diamond. Since only in this state is the stone capable 
of displaying its marvellous lustre, play of colors, and translucency, its 
extraordinary valuation among the ancients would not be very intel- 
ligible had they known it merely as an uncut gem." This argument is 
rather sentimental and intuitive than well founded. As far as the plain 
facts are concerned, Lessing is right ; and, what is even more remarkable, 
has remained right from 1768, the date at which he wrote, up to the 
present. No cut diamond of classical antiquity has as yet come to 
light ; and in order to pass audaciously over the body of Pliny, and have 
us believe what he does not say, such a palpable piece of evidence would 
be indispensable. As a matter of fact, neither Pliny nor any other 
ancient writer loses a word about diamond-dust; nor does he mention 
that the diamond can be cut and polished, or that it was so treated; nor 
does he express himself on the adamantine lustre. 2 This silence is 
sufficiently ominous to guard ourselves, I should think, against the rash 
assumption that the ancients might have cut the diamond. Its high 
appreciation is quite conceivable without the application of this process, 
for even the uncut diamond possesses brilliancy and lustre enough to 
allure a human soul. The possibility would remain that the ancients 
may have received worked diamonds, ready made, straight from India. 3 



1 Technologie, Vol. Ill, p. 233. 

2 Beckmann (Beitrage zur Geschichte der Erfindungen, Vol. Ill, p. 541) held 
that the ancients employed diamond-dust for the cutting of stones other than the 
diamond, but he denied that they polished the diamond with its own dust. This is 
certainly a contradiction in itself: if the ancients knew the utility of diamond-dust, 
there is no reason why they should not have applied it to the diamond; and if they 
did not facet diamonds, it is very plain that they lacked the knowledge of diamond- 
dust. Bauer (Edelsteinkunde, p. 302, 2d ed.) observes, "In how far the ancients 
understood how to polish diamonds, or at least to improve existing crystal surfaces 
by polishing, is not known with certainty. From the traditions handed down, 
however, it becomes evident that this art was not wholly unknown to the ancients.'' 
The latter statement is without basis. 

3 This hypothesis was formulated by H. O. Lenz (Mineralogie der alten Griechen 
und Romer, pp. 39, 164, Gotha, 1861), who concluded from what the ancients said 
regarding the brilliancy of the stone that diamonds cut and polished in the country of 
their origin were traded to Europe. 



48 The Diamond 

Here, again, it is unfortunate that our knowledge fails us: the ancient 
Indian sources exhibit the same lack of information on the identical 
points as does Pliny. S. K. Aiyangar 1 justly points out that. in the 
description of the diamond, as given in the Arthacastra (quoted above, 
p. 1 6), " there is nothing to warrant the inference that diamonds were 
artificially cut; but, perhaps, the fact that diamonds were used to bore 
holes in other substances makes it clear that lapidary work was not 
unknown." A very late work on gems, the Agastimata, in an appendix 
of still later date, contains a curious passage in which the cutting of 
diamonds is prohibited: "The stone which is cut with a blade, or 
which is worn out by repeated friction, becomes useless, and its benevo- 
lent virtue disappears; the stone, on the contrary, which is absolutely 
natural has all its virtue." L. Finot, 2 to whom we owe the edition and 
translation of this work, rightly points out that cutting and polishing are 
clearly understood here; but another passage in the same treatise speaks 
of it as a normal process, without forbidding what precedes the setting 
of diamonds for ornaments, and we regret with Finot that these passages 
cannot be dated. Garcia ab Horto, who wrote in 1563, informs us 
that by the people of India natural diamonds were preferred to the cut 
ones, in opposition to the Portuguese. 3 Ta vernier (1605-89) describes 
the diamond-polishing in the Indian mines by means of diamond-dust. 4 
In the face of the Agastimata and Garcia's statements, suspicion is ripe 
that diamond-cutting was introduced into India only by the Portuguese, 5 
and that the employment of uncut stones was the really national fashion 
of India. The passage in the additional chapter of the Agastimata, 
as stated, cannot be dated with certainty, but it seems more probable 
that it falls within the time of the Portuguese era of India than that it 

1 Quarterly Journal of the Mythic Society, Vol. Ill, p. 130. 

2 Lapidaires indiens, p. xxx. 

3 Si come una vergine si preferisce ad una donna corrotta, cosi il diamante dalla 
natura polito, e acconcio s'ha da preferire a quello, che dall'arte e stato lavorato. 
Al contrario f anno i Portughesi, stimando piu quelli, che sono dall'artincio dell' huomo 
acconci, e lavorati (Italian edition, p. 180). 

4 "There are at this mine numerous diamond-cutters, and each has only a steel 
wheel of about the size of our plates. They place but one stone on each wheel, 
and pour water incessantly on the wheel until they have found the 'grain' of the 
stone. The 'grain' being found, they pour on oil and do not spare diamond-dust, 
although it is expensive, in order to make the stone run faster, and they weight it 
much more heavily than we do. . . . The Indians are unable to give the stones so 
lively a polish as we give them in Europe; and this, I believe, is due to the fact that 
their wheel does not run so smoothly as ours" (ed. of V. Ball, Vol. II, pp. 57, 58). 

5 Also Bauer (Edelsteinkunde, p. 302, 2d ed.) is of the opinion that the diamond- 
cutting of Europe, which was developed from the end of the middle ages, has not 
remained without influence upon India, and that perhaps the process was introduced 
from Europe into India, or was at least resuscitated there. 



Cut Diamonds 49 

should be much earlier. It is safer to adopt this point of view, as the 
Ratnapariksha of Buddhabhatta, who presumably wrote somewhat 
earlier than the sixth century, does not mention the cutting of dia- 
monds, 1 nor does the mineralogical treatise of Narahari from the fifteenth 
century. 2 At all events, we have as yet no ancient source of Indian 
literature in which the cutting of diamonds is distinctly set forth. The 
discovery of such a passage, or, what is still more preferable, archaeological 
evidence in the shape of ancient cut diamonds, may possibly correct 
our knowledge in the future. For the present it seems best to adhere 
to the view that the polishing of diamonds was foreign to ancient India, 
and a process but recently taught by European instructors. Certainly, 
we should not base our present conclusions on hoped-for future dis- 
coveries, which may even never be made, nor should we shift evidence 
appropriate to the last centuries into times of antiquity, nor is there 
reason to persuade ourselves that the knowledge of the diamond on the 
part of the Indians goes back to the period of a boundless antiquity 
(see p. 16). The Chinese contribute nothing to the elucidation of this 
problem; and certain it is that they merely kept the diamonds in the 
condition in which they received them from the Roman Orient, Fu-nan, 
India, and the Arabs, without attempting to improve the appearance 
of the stones. The European tradition that Ludwig van Berquen of 
Brugge in 1476 was the " inventor" of the process of polishing diamonds 
by means of diamond-dust, is, of course, nothing more than a con- 
ventional story (une fable convenue). As shown by Bauer, 3 diamonds 
were roughly or superficially polished as early as the middle ages; and 
Berquen improved the process and arranged the facets with stricter 
regularity, whereby the color effect was essentially enhanced. 4 The 
early history of the technique in Europe is not yet exactly ascertained. 5 



1 L. Finot (/. c, p. xxx), it is true, alludes to a passage of this work where, in his 
opinion, it is apparently the question of diamond-polishing. The text, however, runs 
thus: "The sages must not employ for ornament a diamond with a visible flaw; it 
can serve only for the polishing of gems, and its value is slight." This only means 
that deficient diamonds were used for the working of stones other than the diamond. 

2 R. Garbe, Die indischen Mineralien, pp. 80-83. 

3 L. c, p. 303. 

4 The Berquen legend was firmly established in the seventeenth century, under 
the influence of one of his descendants. Robert de Berquen (in his book Les 
merveilles des Indes orientales et occidentales, p. 13, Paris, 1669), after disdainfully 
talking about the rough diamonds obtained from India, soars into this panegyric of 
his ancestor : ' ' Le Ciel doua ce Louis de Berquen qui estoit natif de Bruges, comme un 
autre Bezellee.de cet esprit singulier ou genie, pour en trouver de luy mesme l'inven- 
tion et en venir heureusement a bout." Then follows the story of the "invention." 

6 H. Sokeland (Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie, Vol. XXIII, 1891, Verhandlungen, 
p. 621) took up this question again, and thought that definite proof had not been 



50 The Diamond 

On the other hand, we have two testimonies in witness of the fact 
that, even though a certain crude method of treating diamonds may 
have lingered in the Orient, the superior European achievements along 
this line were received by Oriental nations as a surprising novelty. The 
Armenian lapidarium of the seventeenth century states, 1 "No one 
besides the Franks (Europeans) understands how to polish and to bore 
the diamond. The polished stone of four carats is sold at ten thousand 
otrnani. The Franks at Aleppo say that the diamond, though it is the 
king of all precious stones, is of no utility without polishing, because 
in its raw state admixtures will remain, which may often not be notice- 
able in the cut stone." The Chinese made their first acquaintance with 
polished diamonds among the Portuguese of Macao, who, they say, base 
their valuation on this quality. 2 

Acquaintance of the Chinese with the Diamond. — Let us now 
examine the objections which have been raised by sinologues to the 
identification of the term kin-kang with the diamond. F. Porter 
Smith, 3 who made rather inexact statements on the subject, in 1871 
contested that kin-kang denotes the real diamond, and treated it under 
the title "corundum," which arbitrarily he takes for "a kind of adaman- 
tine spar." Corundum, he states, crystallizes in six-sided prisms, but 
the Chinese siliceous stone is said to be octahedral in form. If this be 
really said by the Chinese, it is evidence that the stone in question is the 
diamond, not corundum; and the latter, in its main varieties of ruby and 
sapphire, is well known to the Chinese under a number of terms. Black- 
ish emery, containing iron, it is thought by Smith, is also described 

brought forward for the assertion that the ancients did not employ diamond-dust; 
but he recruited no new facts for the discussion, and merely referred to the old fable 
that the Bishop Marbodus (1035-1123) should have been familiar with diamond- 
dust. Marbodus, however, in his famous treatise De lapidibus pretiosis, most 
obviously speaks only of diamond-splinters (huius fragmentis gemmae sculptuntur 
acutis; in the earliest French translation, des pieccettes |Ki en esclatent aguettesj 
Les altres gemmes sunt talliees| E gentement aparelliees. — L. Pannier, Lapidaires 
francais du moyen age, p. 36), as translated correctly also by King (Antique Gems, 
p. 392); and he does so, not because he was possibly acquainted with them, but be- 
cause he copied this matter, as most of his data, from Pliny. Likewise Konrad von 
Megenberg, in his Book of Nature written 1349-50 (ed. of F. Pfeiffer, p. 433), 
states only that other hard precious stones are graved with pointed diamond-pieces. 
It means little, as insisted upon by Sokeland, that A. Hirth and Mariette second the 
cause of the ancients in the use of diamond-dust, as their opinion is not based on any 
text to this effect (such does not exist), but merely on the impression received from 
certain engraved gems. The conclusion, however, that these could not have been 
worked otherwise than by means of diamond-dust, is unwarranted, and plainly 
contradicted by Pliny's data regarding the treatment of precious stones. 

1 Russian translation of Patkanov, p. 4. 

2 Wu li siao shi, Ch. 8, p. 22. 

3 Contributions toward the Materia Medica of China, pp. 74, 85. 



Acquaintance of the Chinese with the Diamond 51 

under this heading in the Pen ts'ao. We have seen that what is de- 
scribed in this work, owing to the strict conformity with classical tradi- 
tions, refers to nothing but the diamond; and it was the black diamonds 
which were chosen as graving-implements. According to Smith, 
Cambodja, India, Asia Minor, the country of the Hui-k'i (Uigur), and 
other countries of Asia, are said to possess this stone. Cambodja is 
intended for Fu-nan; and the country of the Uigur, as has been shown, 
is merely the theatre of action for the legend of the Diamond Valley in 
the version of Chou Mi (this statement is devoid of any geographical 
value). If the prefecture of Shun-ning in Yun-nan, as stated by Smith, 
yields the present supply of corundum used in cutting gems, this is an 
entirely different; question. If the name kin-kang is bestowed on 
corundum-points, it is a commercial term, which does not disprove that 
the kin-kang of ancient tradition was the diamond, or prove that it 
was a kind of corundum. The diamond-points formerly imported were 
naturally scarce; and the Chinese, recognizing the high usefulness of 
this implement, were certainly eager to discover a similar material in 
their country, fit to take the place of the imported article. 1 This is a 
process which repeated itself in China numerous times: the impetus 
received from abroad acted as a stimulus to domestic research. If such 
a stone was ultimately found, it was termed kin-kang, not because this 
stone was confounded with the diamond, but for the natural reason that 
it was turned to the same use as the diamond-point ; in other words, the 
name in this case does not relate to the stone as a mineralogical species, 
but to the stone in its function as an implement. Consequently it is 
inadmissible to draw any scientific inferences from the modern applica- 
tion of the word kin-kang as to the character of the stone mentioned in 
the earlier records of the Chinese. 

A. J. C. Geerts, 2 in his very useful, though occasionally uncritical 
work, charges the Chinese books with the defect of having constantly 
confounded the diamond with corundum, adamantine spar, pyrope, 

1 This is proved by the Arabs. The Arabic lapidarium of the ninth century, 
attributed by tradition to Aristotle, demonstrates that Chinese emery was known to 
the Arabs: the localities where it is found are the islands of the Chinese Sea, and it 
occurs there as a coarse sand in which are also larger and smaller hard stones (Ruska, 
Steinbuch des Aristoteles, p. 151). The Arabs certainly did not confound this 
Chinese emery with the diamond, nor did the Chinese. This is demonstrated also 
by Ibn Khordadbeh, who wrote his Book of the Routes and Kingdoms between 844 
and 848, and according to whom diamond and emery, the latter for polishing metal, 
were exported from Ceylon (G. Ferrand, Relations de voyages arabes, persans et 
turks rel. a l'Extrdme-Orient, Vol. I, p. 31). Diamond and emery, accordingly, 
were distinct matters in the eyes of the Arabs, Ceylonese, and Chinese. 

2 Les produits de la nature japonaise et chinoise, pp. 201-202, 356-358 (Yoko- 
hama, 1878, 1883). 



52 The Diamond 

almandine, zircon, etc. This list is somewhat extended; and whoever 
deems its length insufficient may stretch it ad libitum under screen of 
the "etc." A charge of confusion is an easy means of overcoming a 
difficult subject and setting a valve on serious investigation. It is to 
be apprehended lest in this case the confusion is rather in the mind of 
Geerts than in that of the Chinese, and results from his failure to read 
the Chinese texts with critical eyes. The first conspicuous confusion of 
Geerts is, that on p. 202 he grants Li Shi-ch§n the privilege of indicating 
the true diamond, 1 while this license is abrogated on p. 357 : "The place 
of the kin-kang between iron pyrite and aluminous schist is contrary to 
the idea that this author intended to designate under this name the 
diamond." What neither Geerts, nor his predecessor Smith, nor his 
successor de Mely, understood, is the plain fact that Li Shi-chen does not 
speak at all of the diamond as a stone, but of the diamond-point as an 
implement. For this reason it is embodied in the chapter on stones, and 
is logically followed by a discussion of stone needles used in acupuncture. 
The term "kin-kang stone" means to Li Shi-ch&i nothing but the 
diamond-point. The fact that, besides, the diamond was known to 
the Chinese as a precious stone, is evidenced by the text of the Tsin k% 
ku chu (p. 35), where the diamond is spoken of as a precious stone (pao), 
and by the Ko chi king yuan, 2 where the stone is designated as a "dia- 
mond jewel" (kin-kang pao) and classed with jade and gems in the 
chapter on precious objects (chtn pao lei). z It is not necessary to push 
any further this criticism of Geerts, who hazards other eccentric con- 
clusions in this section. The evidence brought together is overwhelm- 
ing in demonstrating that the kin-kang in the texts offered by Li Shi- 
ch£n, and in ancient Chinese tradition generally, is the diamond. This 
uniform interpretation, inspired by an analysis of all traditions in the 
known ancient world, instead of an appeal to confusion with a choice 
of fanciful possibilities, seems to be the best guarantor for the exactness 
of the result. 



1 The text referred to is that of Pao-p'u-tse regarding Fu-nan; but it is Li Shi-ch&i 
who is made responsible for it by Geerts. This uncritical method of Smith, Geerts, 
and de Mely, who load everything on to'the Pin ts'ao or its author Li Shi-chen, with- 
out taking the trouble to unravel the various sources quoted by him and to study the 
traditions with historical criticism, is the principal reason for their failure in reaching 
positive results. 

2 Ch. 33, p. 3b. 

3 In the great cyclopaedia Tai pHng yil Ian (Ch. 813) the notes on the diamond 
are arranged in the section on metals, being preceded by those on copper and iron. 
The cyclopaedia T'u shu tsi ch*ing has adopted the scheme of Li Shi-ch&n, placing the 
diamond in the division "stones." It is content to reiterate simply Li Shi-chen's 
notes, so that this is one of the poorest chapters of this thesaurus. 



Acquaintance of the Chinese with the Diamond 53 

The solidity and exactness of Chinese tradition is vividly illustrated 
also by another fact. The term kin-kang for the diamond was coined 
by the Chinese as a free adaptation of the Sanskrit word vajra, and, 
like the latter, signifies with them both the mythical weapon of Indra 
and the Indian diamond. We noticed that in the oldest historical 
account of the diamond relative to the year a.d. 277 this precious stone 
is stated as coming from India, but that at the same time traditions of 
classical antiquity are blended with this early narrative. Again, the 
Chinese fully recognized the stone in the diamond-points furnished to 
them in the channel of trade with the Hellenistic Orient, and were 
perfectly aware of the fact that diamonds were utilized in the Roman 
Empire. 1 In the most diverse parts of the world, wherever commercial, 
diplomatic, or political enterprise carried them, the Chinese observed 
the diamond, and in every case applied to it correctly the term kin-kang. 
Thus, according to their Annals, the diamond was found among the 
precious stones peculiar to the culture of Persia under the Sassanians. 2 

Among the early mentions of diamonds is that of diamond finger- 
rings sent in a.d. 430 as tribute from the kingdom Ho-lo-tan on the 
Island of Java. 3 In all periods of their history, the Chinese, indeed, 

1 The Hiian chung ki of the fifth century expressly states that diamonds come 
from (or are produced in) India and Ta Ts'in (T'ai pHng yil Ian, Ch. 813, p. 10). 

2 Pei shi, Ch. 97, p. 7b; Wei shu, Ch. 102, p. 5b; and Sui shu, Ch. 83, p. 7b. 
Dionysius Periegetes, who lived at the time of the Emperor Hadrian (117-138), 
in his poem Orbis descriptio (Verse 318), says that the diamond is found in the 
proximity of the country of the Agathyrsi residing north of the Istros (Danube); 
and Ammianus Marcellinus (xxii, 8; ed. Nisard, p. 175) states that the diamond 
abounds among this people (Agathyrsi, apud quos adamantis est copia lapidis). 
Blumner (Technologie, Vol. Ill, p. 232; and in Pauly's Realenzyklopadie, Vol. IX, 
col. 323) infers from these data that the diamond-mines recently rediscovered in the 
Ural seem to have been known to the ancients; but this conclusion is not forcible. 
The mines in the Ural began to be opened only from 1829 (the question is not of a 
rediscovery), and there is no evidence that diamonds were found there at any earlier 
time. Aside from this fact, a respectable distance separated the Ural from the 
habitat of the Agathyrsi, who occupied the territory of what is now Siebenburgen. 
Already Herodotus (iv, 104) knew them as men given to luxury and very fond of 
wearing gold ornaments. The interesting point is that the Agathyrsi, as shown by 
Justi (Grundriss der iranischen Philologie, Vol. II, p. 442), judging from the remains 
of their language, belonged to the Scythian stock of peoples, speaking an Iranian 
language. The notes of Dionysius and Ammianus, therefore, confirm for a Western 
tribe of this extended family what the Chinese report about Iran proper, and it may 
be that the diamond was known to all members of the Iranian group in the first 
centuries of our era. 

3 Pelliot (Bull, de VEcole frangaise, Vol. IV, p. 271), who has indicated this 
passage, sees some difficulties in the term kin kang chi huan. While admitting 
that kin-kang is the diamond, he thinks that this translation does not fit the case, 
and proposes to understand the term in the sense of "rings of rock-crystal." I see 
no difficulty in assuming that finger-rings of metal set with a diamond are here in 
question. This passage, indeed, is not the only one to mention diamond rings. In 



54 The Diamond 

were familiar with the diamond. To Chao Ju-kua of the Sung period, 
India was known as a diamond-producing country, though what he re- 
lates about the stone is copied from the text of Pao-p'u-tse, quoted 
above (p. 21). 1 

Judging from Marco Polo's report, 2 the best diamonds of India found 
their way to the Court of the Great Khan. 

The Annals of the Ming record embassies from Lu-mi (Rum) in 1548 
and 1554, presenting diamonds among other objects. 3 In the Ming 
period eight kinds of precious stones were known from Hormuz, the 
emporium at the entrance of the Persian Gulf; the fifth of these was the 
diamond. 4 At the same time diamonds were known on Java. 5 

the year a.d. 428 of the Liu Sung dynasty, the King of Kia-p'i-li (Kapila) in India 
sent diamond rings to the Chinese Court (Sung shu, Ch. 97, p. 4). The Nan fang 
i wu chi (Account of Remarkable Products of Southern China, by Fang Ts'ien-li 
of the fifth century or earlier: Bretschneider, Bot. Sin., pt. 1, No. 544) relates 
that foreigners are fond of adorning rings with diamonds and wearing these (T*ai 
pHng yu Ian, Ch. 813, p. 10) ; and Li Shi-ch&n (above, p. 40) is familiar with diamond 
finger-rings. The Records of Champa (Lin yi hi) relate that the King of Lin-yi 
(Champa), Fan-ming-ta, presented to the Court diamond finger-rings (T'u shu tsi 
ch'ing, Pien i Hen 96, hui k'ao 1, p. lib; jor T l ai pHng yii Ian, I. c). Daggers and 
krisses are set with diamonds in Java, and they are used for inlaying on lance- 
heads (Int. Archiv fur Ethnographic, Vol. Ill, 1890, pp. 94-97, 101). The ancients 
already employed the diamond as a ring-stone (Blumner, Technologie, Vol. Ill, 
p. 232). 

1 Hirth and Rockhill, Chau Ju-kua, p. in. 

2 Edition of Yule and Cordier, Vol. II, p. 361. 

3 Bretschneider, China Review, Vol. V, p. 177. 

4 Si yang cfcao kung tien lu, Ch. c, p. 7 (ed. of Pie hia chai ts'ung shu), written in 
1520 by Huang Sing-ts6ng (regarding this work see Chinese Clay Figures, p. 165, 
note 3; Mayers, China Review, Vol. Ill, p. 220; and Rockhill, T'oung Pao, 1915, 
P- 76). 

5 Ibid., Ch. A, p. 9. — It is somewhat surprising that the Chinese were not 
acquainted with the diamonds of Borneo; at least in none of their documents touching 
their relations with the island is any mention made of the diamonds found there. 
A good description of the Borneo mines, their sites, working-methods, output, etc., 
is given by M. E. Boutan (Le Diamant, pp. 223-228, with map, Paris, 1886), 
M. Bauer (Edelsteinkunde, 2d ed., pp. 274-281), and in an article of the Encyclo- 
paedic van Nederlandsch-Indie (Vol. I, pp. 445-446). None of these sources, how- 
ever, bears on the question as to when these mines were opened, or when the first 
diamonds were discovered, and whether this was done by natives or Europeans. As 
nearly as I can make out, Borneo diamonds were known in the European market in the 
latter part of the seventeenth century. In a small anonymous book entitled The 
History of Jewels, and of the Principal Riches of the East and West, taken from the 
Relation of Divers of the most Famous Travellers of Our Age (London, 1671, printed 
by T. N. for Hobart Kemp, at the Sign of the Ship in the Upper Walk of the New 
Exchange) I find the following: "Let me therefore tell you, that none has been yet 
able in all the world to discover more than five places, from whence the diamond is 
brought, viz., two rivers and three mines. The first of the two rivers is in the Isle 
Borneo, under the equator, on the east of the Chersonesus of Gold, and is called 
Succadan. The stones fetched from thence are usually clear and of a good water, 



Stones of Nocturnal Luminosity 55 

Stones or Nocturnal Luminosity. — We noticed that the diamond 
and the traditions connected with it reached the Chinese chiefly from 
the Hellenistic Orient. We should therefore be justified in expecting 
also that the historical texts relative to Ta Ts'in and inserted in the 
Chinese annals might contain references to this stone; but in Hirth's 
classical work "China and the Roman Orient, " where all these docu- 
ments are carefully assembled and minutely studied, the diamond is 
not even mentioned. 1 This, at first sight, is very striking; but it would 
be permissible to think that the diamond is hidden there under a name 
not yet recognized as such. In the first principal account of Ta Ts'in 
embodied in the Annals of the Posterior Han Dynasty, 2 we read that 

and almost all bright' and brisk, whereof no other reason can be given, but that they 
are found at the bottom of a river amongst sand which is pure, and has no mixture, 
or tincture of other earth, as in other places. These stones are not discovered till 
after the waters which fall like huge torrents from the mountains, are all passed, and 
men have much to do to attain them, since few persons go to traffic in this isle; and 
forasmuch as the inhabitants do fall upon strangers who come ashore, unless it be by 
a particular favor. Besides that, the Queen does rarely permit any to transport 
them; and so soon as ever any one hath found one of them they are obliged to bring 
it to her. Yet for all that they pass up and down, and now and then the Hollanders 
buy them in Batavia. Some few are found there, but the largest do not exceed 
five carats, although in the year 1648, there was one to be sold in Batavia of 22 carats. 
I have made mention of the Queen of Borneo, and not of the King, because that the 
isle is always commanded by a woman, for that people, who will have no prince but 
what is legitimate, would not be otherwise assured of the birth of males, but can not 
doubt of those of the females, who are necessarily of the blood royal on their mother's 
side, she never marrying, yet having always the command." 

1 India's trade in diamonds with Ta Ts'in, already pointed out, is mentioned in 
the chapter on India, inserted in the Tang Annals (Ch. 221 A, p. 10b). 

2 Hou Han shu, Ch. 1 18, p. 4b. Both the night-shining jewel and the moonlight 
pearl are mentioned together also in the Nestorian inscription of Si-ngan fu and in 
the Chinese Manichean treatise (Chavannes and Pelliot, Traite manicheen, p. 68). 
In the latter it is compassion that is likened to the "gem, bright like the moon, which 
is the first among all jewels." The T'ung tien of Tu Yu (written from 766 to 801) 
ascribes genuine pearls, night-shining and moon-bright gems, to the country of the 
Pigmies north-west of Sogdiana (T'ai p'ing yii Ian, Ch. 796, p. 7 b). In that fabulous 
work Tung ming ki, which seems to go back to the middle of the sixth century (Cha- 
vannes and Pelliot, /. c, p. 145), the Emperor Wu of the Han dynasty is said 
to have obtained in 102 B.C. a white gem (4?!$*.; the word chu means not only 
"pearl,. bead," but also "gems generally"), which the Emperor wrapped up in a 
piece of brocade. It was as if it reflected the light of the moon, whence it was styled 
" moon-reflecting gem" {chao yiie chu; see P*ei win yiin fu, Ch. 7A, p. 107). The 
San Ts'in ki, a book of the fifth century, has on record that in the tumulus of the 
Emperor Ts'in Shi pearls shining at night {ye kuang chu) formed a palace of the sun 
and moon, and that moonlight pearls {ming yiie chu) suspended in the grave emitted 
light by day and night {T'u shu tsi ching, chapter on pearls, ki shi, I, p. 3 b). The 
word pH used in the term ye kuang p'i, at first sight, is striking, as it refers to a per- 
forated circular jade disk, such as occurs in ancient China (see Jade, p. 154), but does 
not occur in the Hellenistic Orient. It is therefore probable that the term already 
pre-existed in China, and was merely transferred to a jewel of the Roman Orient 



56 The Diamond 

1 'the country contains much gold, silver, and rare precious stones, par- 
ticularly the jewel that shines at night (ye kuang pH ^kjfj%, ), or the 
'jewel of noctural luminosity,' and the moonlight pearl (or 'pearl as 

which was reported to the Chinese to shine at night. This holds good also of the 
term ming yiie chu. In T*oung Pao (19 13, p. 341) and Chinese Clay Figures (p. 151) 
I pointed out that the two terms are employed as early as the Shi ki of Se-ma Ts'ien. 
The passage occurs in the Biography of Li Se (Ch. 87, p. 2 b), who is ill-famed for 
the extermination of Confucian literature under the Emperor Ts'in Shi, and who died 
in 208 B.C. (Giles, Biographical Dictionary, p. 464). In another passage of the same 
work the two terms "moonlight (or moon-bright) pearl" and "night-shining jade- 
disk" are coupled together, used in a figurative sense (Petillon, Allusions litteraires, 
p. 242; Lockhart, Manual of Chinese Quotations, p. 397). A third passage leaves 
no doubt of what Se-ma Ts'ien understood by a moonlight pearl. In his chapter 
treating divination from the tortoise-shell (Ch. 128, p. 2b), he defines the term thus: 
"The moonlight pearl is produced in rivers and in the sea, hidden in the oyster- 
shell, while the water-dragon attacks it. When the sovereign obtains it, he will hold 
in submission for a long time the foreign tribes residing in the four quarters of the 
empire." The moonlight pearl, accordingly, was to Se-ma Ts'ien and his contempo- 
raries a river or marine pearl of fine quality, worthy of a king, a foreign origin of it 
not being necessarily implied. The philosopher Mo Ti or Mo-tse, who seems to have 
lived after Confucius and before M6ng-tse, mentions the night-shining pearl (ye kuang 
chi chu) in an enumeration of prominent treasures; but I am not convinced of the 
authenticity of the text published under his name, which was doubtless fabricated 
by his disciples (compare Grube, Geschichte der chinesischen Litteratur, p. 129), 
and tampered with by subsequent editors. The mention of this pearl in Mo Ti and 
in other alleged early Taoist writers (compare the questionable text of the Shi i ki, 
quoted by de Groot, Religious System of China, Vol. I, p. 278) may be a retro- 
spective interpolation as well. Se-ma Ts'ien must be regarded as the only early 
author whose references in this case may be relied upon as authentic and contempo- 
raneous. (The uncritical notes of T. de Lacouperie, Babylonian and Oriental 
Record, Vol. VI, 1893, P* 2 7*i with their fantastic comment, are without value.) It 
seems to me, that, in applying the identical terms to real objects encountered in the 
Hellenistic Orient, the Chinese named these with reference to that passage of Se-ma 
Ts'ien by way of a literary allusion, and that for this reason the word p'i, in this 
instance, is not to be accepted literally, as has been done by Chavannes (T'oung 
Pao, 1907, p. 181 : "l'anneau qui brille pendant la nuit"), but that the term ye kuang 
pH represents an undivided unit denoting a precious stone. Further, this is cor- 
roborated by two facts, — first, that the ancients speak of precious stones, not of 
rings or disks brilliant at night; and, second, that Yu Huan (220-265), in his Wei lio, 
has altered the term ye kuang p'i into ye kuang chu ("night-shining pearl or gem") 
with regard to Ta Ts'in, evidently guided by a correct feeling that this modification 
would more appropriately conform to the object. Moreover, there are neither in 
Greek nor in Latin any exact equivalents which might have served as models for the 
two Chinese expressions; the Chinese, indeed, possessed the latter before coming into 
contact with the Hellenistic-Roman world; ye kuang ("light of the night") is an 
ancient term to designate the moon, which appears in Huai-nan-tse (Schlegel, 
Uranographie chinoise, p. 610). This point of terminology, however, must be dis- 
tinguished from the matter-of-fact problem. Whatever the origin of the Chinese 
terms may be, from the time of intercourse with Ta Ts'in, they strictly refer to a 
certain group of gems occupying a conspicuous place in the antique world and deeply 
impressing the minds of the Chinese. AH subsequent Chinese allusions to such gems, 
even though connected with domestic localities, imply distinct reminiscences of the 
former indelible experience made in the Hellenistic Orient. 



Stones of Nocturnal Luminosity 57 

clear as the moon,' yiie ming cku ft J$ $&*)" Hirth x and Chavannes 2 
have united a certain number of classical texts, in order to show that 
the notion of precious stones, and especially carbuncles, shining at 
night, was widely propagated in Greek and Roman times; the case, 
however, deserves a more critical examination. It seems to me, first 
of all, that a distinction must be made between ye kuang p*i and yiie 
ming cku. These two different terms must needs refer to two diverse 
groups of stones and correspondingly different traditions. It is not 
difficult to identify the latter of the two, if we examine our Pliny. 
This is Pliny's astrion, of which he says, "Of a like white radiance 3 is 
the stone called astrion, cognate to crystal, and occurring in India and 
on the littoral of Patalene. In its interior, radiating from the centre, 
shines a star with the full brilliancy of the moon. Some account for 
the name by saying that the stone placed opposite to the stars ab- 
sorbs their refulgence and emits it again." 4 Pliny's "fulgore pleno 
lunae" appears as the basis for the Chinese term yiie ming chu (literally, 
"moon shining pearl") with reference to this precious stone, as found 
in the anterior Orient. 5 Hirth (I. c.) refers us to Herodotus (II, 44), 
who mentions a temple of Hercules at Tyre in Phoenicia with two pil- 
lars, — one of pure gold, the other of smaragdos, — shining with great 
brilliancy at night. Hirth takes this smaragdos for "emerald stone;" 
it is certain, however, that the word in this passage does not mean 
"emerald," but denotes a greenish building-stone of a color similar to 
the emerald, 6 perhaps, as Blumner 7 is inclined to think, green porphyry. 
This passage, accordingly, affords no evidence that the Chinese "stone 

1 China and the Roman Orient, pp. 242-244. 

2 T'oung Pao, 1907, p. 181. 

3 With reference to the white stone asteria, dealt with in the preceding chapter. 

4 Similiter Candida est quae vocatm astrion, crystallo propinqua, in India nascens 
et in Patalenes litoribus. Huic intus a centro stella lucet fulgore pleno lunae. 
Quidam causam nominis reddunt quod astris opposita fulgorem rapiat et regerat 
(xxxvn, 48, § 132). 

5 The much-discussed question as to the stone to be understood by Pliny's 
astrion does not concern us here. The opinion that it is identical with what is now 
called asteria ("star stone") is the most probable one (compare Blumner, Tech- 
nologie, Vol. Ill, p. 234). The most detailed study of the subject, not quoted by 
Krause or Blumner, is that by J. M. Guthe, "Qber den Astrios-Edelstein des Cajus 
Plinius Secundus (Munchen, 1810). Judging from the recent report of D. B. Ster- 
rett (Gems and Precious Stones in 19 13, p. 704, Washington, 19 14), this stone seems 
to become fashionable again in jewelry. Possibly also Pliny's selenitis (67, § 181), 
which has within it a figure of the moon and day by day reflects her various phases, 
may be sought in the Chinese "moonlight gem," as already supposed by D'Herbelot 
(Bibliotheque orientale, Vol. IV, p. 398). 

6 Krause, Pyrgoteles, p. 37. 

7 Technologie, Vol. Ill, p. 240. 



58 The Diamond 

luminous at night" might be the emerald; nor can it be invoked as a 
contribution to the problem, as the Chinese do not speak of pillars, but 
of a precious stone. Hirth, further, quotes an account from -Pliny 
contained in his notes on the smaragdus. It is difficult to see what 
relation it is supposed to have with the subject under discussion, as 
Pliny does not say a word about these stones shining at night. The 
story runs thus: "They say that on this island above the tomb of a 
petty king, Hermias, near the fisheries, there was the marble statue of 
a lion, with eyes of smaragdi set in, flashing their light into the sea 
with such force that the tunnies were frightened away and fled, till 
the fishermen, long marvelling at this unusual phenomenon, replaced the 
stones by others." 1 The plot of Pliny's story is certainly laid in the 
daytime, not during the night; fishes, as is well known, being attracted 
at night by luminous phenomena spreading over the surface of the 
water, and even being caught by the glare of torch-light. At any rate, 
the passage contains nothing about jewels brightening the night. 
Chavannes, more fortunately, points to Lucian (De dea syria), who 
describes a statue of the Syrian goddess in Hierapolis bearing a gem on 
her head called lychnis: "From this stone flashes a great light in the 
night-time, so that the whole temple gleams brightly as by the light of 
myriads of candles, but in the daytime the brightness grows faint; the 
gem has the likeness of a bright fire." 2 The name lychnis is connected 
with Greek lychnos ("a portable lamp "). According to Pliny, the stone 
is so called from its lustre being heightened by the light of a lamp, when 
its tints are particularly pleasing. 3 Pliny does not say that the lychnis 
shines at night, 4 but his definition indicates well how this tradition 
arose. Pseudo-Callisthenes (n, 42) makes Alexander the Great spear 
a fish, in whose bowels was found a white stone so brilliant that every 
one believed it was a lamp. Alexander set it in gold, and used it as a 
lamp at night. 5 The origin of this trivial story is perspicuous enough. 

1 Ferunt in ea insula tumulo reguli Hermiae iuxta cetarias marmoreo leoni fuisse 
inditos oculos e smaragdis ita radiantibus etiam in gurgitem, ut territi thynni 
refugerent, diu mirantibus novitatem piscatoribus, donee mutavere oculis gemmas 
(xxxvn, 17, § 66). Compare Krause, Pyrgoteles, p. 38. 

2 H. A. Strong, The Syrian Goddess, p. 72 (London, 1913). 

3 Ex eodem genere ardentium est lychnis appellata a lucernarum adsensu, turn 
praecipuae gratiae (xxxvn, 29, § 103). Dionysius Periegetes compares the lychnis 
with the flame of fire (Krause, /. c, p. 22). Of the various identifications proposed 
for this stone, that of tourmaline has the greatest likelihood, as Pliny refers to its 
magnetic property, inasmuch as, when heated or rubbed between the fingers, it will 
attract chaff and papyrus-fibres. 

4 He does not say so, in fact, with regard to any stone. 

5 It should be noted, however, that in the oldest accessible form of the Romance 
of Alexander, as critically restored by A. Ausfeld (Der griechische Alexanderroman, 



Stones of Nocturnal Luminosity 59 

It is welded from two elements, — a reflex of the ring of Polycrates 1 
rediscovered in the stomach of a fish, and the tradition underlying the 
Plinian explanation of the lychnis. It is accordingly the lychnis which, 
through exaggeration of a tradition inspired by the name, gave rise to 
a fable of stones luminous at night. 2 

A story of Aelian 3 merits particular attention : Herakleis, a virtuous 
widow of Tarent, nursed a young stork that had broken its leg. The 
grateful bird, a year after its release, dropped a stone into the woman's 
lap. Awakening at night, she noticed that the stone spread light and 
lustre, illuminating the room as though a torch had been brought in. 
The author adds that it was a very precious stone, without further 
determination. 4 This story meets with a parallel in a curious anecdote 
of China, told in the Shi i ki, that, when Prince Chao of Yen was once 
seated on a terrace, black birds with white heads flocked there together, 
holding in their beaks perfectly resplendent pearls (tung kuang chu 
(Sl£)^L,jJL), measuring one foot all round. These pearls were black as 
lacquer, and emitted light in the interior of a house to such a degree 
that even the spirits could not obscure their supernatural essence. 5 
Still more striking in its resemblance to Aelian's story is one in the 
Sou shen ki: 6 "The marquis of Sui once encountered a wounded snake, 
and had it cured by means of drugs. After the lapse of a year [as in 
Aelian] the snake appeared with a luminous gem in its mouth to repay 
his kindness. This gem was an inch in diameter, perfectly white, and 
emitted at night a light of the brightness of the moon, so that the room 
was lighted as by a torch." The gem was styled "gem of the marquis of 



p. 84), this incident is not contained; it is contained in the uncritical edition of 
C. Muller of 1846. If Ausfeld (p. 242) is right in placing the primeval text of 
Pseudo-Callisthenes in the second century B.C., the episode in question, which 
indubitably is a later interpolation, is not older than the second or third cen- 
tury A.D. 

1 Herodotus, in, 41-42. — The stone in this signet-ring, according to Herodotus, 
was a smaragdos; according to Pliny (xxxvu, i), a sardonyx (compare Krause, 
Pyrgoteles, p. 135). 

2 As a fabulous stone found in the river Hydaspes, the lychnis is mentioned in the 
unauthentic treatise De fluviis, wrongly ascribed to Plutarch (P. de Mely, Lapidaires 
grecs, p. 29). . 

8 Hist, animalium, vin, 22. 

4 A. Marx, in his interesting study Griechische Marchen von dankbaren Tieren 
(p. 52, Stuttgart, 1889), justly comments that the stone mentioned in this tale is the 
lychnites or lychnis, because, according to Philostratus (Apollonius from Tyana, 
II, 14), this was the stone placed by the storks in their nests in order to guard them 
from snakes, and because the lychnis spreads such marvellous light in the dark and 
possesses many magical virtues (Orphica, 271). 

6 P'ei wtn yunfu, Ch. 7A, p. 107. 

6 jT'm shu tsi ch'dng, chapter on pearls, ki shi, I, p. 1 b. 



60 The Diamond 

Sui," "gem of the spiritual snake," or " moonlight pearl." 1 The same 
Chinese work offers another parallel that is still closer to Aelian, inas- 
much as the bird in question is a crane, which would naturally take the 
place of the stork not occurring in China. "K'uai Ts'an nursed his 
mother in a most filial manner. There nested on his house a crane, 
which was shot by men practising archery, and in a wretched condition 
returned to Ts'an's place. Ts'an nursed the bird and healed its wound, 
and, the cure being effected, released it. Subsequently it happened 
one night that cranes arrived before the door of his house. Ts'an 
seized a torch, and, on examination, noted that a couple of cranes, male 
and female, had come, carrying in their beaks moon-bright pearls 
iming yue chu) to recompense his good deed." 2 The coincidences in 
these three Chinese versions and the story of the Greek author, even in 
unimportant details, are so striking, that an historical connection be- 
tween the two is obvious. The dependence of the Chinese upon the 
Greek story is evidenced by the feature of the moon-bright pearls, 
whose actual existence is ascribed by the Chinese to the Hellenistic 
Orient. 3 

Hirth has conjectured that the Chinese name " jewel that shines 
at night" possibly is an allusion to the ancient name carbunculus y cor- 
responding to Greek anthrax (the ruby) . Pliny, however, in the chapter 
devoted to this stone, has no report about its shining at night. He 
insists, quite naturally, on its "fire," from which it has received its 
name, carbunculus meaning "a red-hot coal." 4 The only blade of 
straw to which the above hypothesis might cling may be found in the 
words quoted by Pliny from Archelaus, who affirmed that these stones 
indoors appear purple in color; in the open air, however, flaming. 5 
What I translate by " indoors" means literally, "when the roof over- 
shadows one." This phrase evidently implies no allusion to a dark 
room, but is used in the sense of "in the shadow of a house," in opposi- 
tion to the following open-air inspection of the stones. The only 
ancient text known to me, that mentions a ruby shining at night (and 
styled "color of marine purple"), is a small Greek alchemical work 

1 Compare A. Forke, Lun-hSng, pt. I, p. 378; and Petillon (Allusions litteraires, 
p. 243), who quotes this story from Huai-nan-tse. 

2 L. c, ki shi, 1, p. 6 b. 

3 In a wider sense this typical story belongs to the cycle of the grateful animals, 
a favorite subject of the Greeks in the Alexandrian epoch (compare A. Marx, 
Griechische Marchen von dankbaren Tieren; and F. Susemihl, Geschichte der 
griechischen Litteratur in der Alexandrinerzeit, Vol. I, p. 856). 

4 Compare Theophrastus, De lapidibus, 18 (opera ed. Wimmer, p. 343). 

6 Eosdem obumbrante tecto purpureos videri, sub caelo flammeos (xxxvn, 25, 
§95). 



Stones of Nocturnal Luminosity 6i 

translated by M. Berthelot, 1 which cannot lay claim to great an- 
tiquity. For the purpose of identification, tourmaline (lychnis), and 



1 Introduction a l'etude de la chimie, p. 272 (Paris, 1889). Not only Hirth, 
but also Mayers (Chinese Reader's Manual, p. 25), T. de Lacouperie (Babylonian 
and Oriental Record, Vol. VI, 1893, P- 2 74)» an d Chavannes (T'oung Pao, 1907, 
p. 181), without giving reference to any passage, are unanimous in the belief that the 
carbuncle is the chief night-shining jewel of the ancients. It would be interesting to 
learn what alleged passage in an ancient author these scholars had in mind. As far 
as I know, the carbuncle appears as a night-shining stone only in the mineralogical 
writings of the middle ages, for the first time presumably in the fundamental work 
De lapidibus pretiosis of Marbodus (1035-1123), the famous French Bishop of 
Rennes. In the earliest French translation of his book (L. Pannier, Lapidaires 
francais du moyen age, p. 52) the passage runs thus: 

"Scherbuncles gettede sei rais. 
Plus ardant piere n'i a mais : 
De sa clart6 la noit resplent, 
Mais le jut n'en fera neient." 

In the famous letter, purported to have been addressed by Prester John to the 
Byzantine Emperor Manuel, and written about the year 1 165, we find the carbuncle 
mentioned in three passages (57, 90, 93; F. Zarncke, Der Priester Johannes I, 
pp. 91, 95, 96), in the fanciful and extravagant description of the palace of the Royal 
Presbyter in India: "In extremitatibus vero super oilmen palacii sunt duo poma 
aurea, et in unoquoque sunt duo carbunculi, ut aurum splendeat in die et carbunculi 
luceant in nocte. — Longitudo unius cuiusque columpnae est LX cubitorum, gros- 
situdo est, quantum duo homines suis ulnis circumcingere possunt, et unaquaeque 
in suo cacumine habet unum carbunculum adeo magnum, ut est magna amphora, 
quibus illuminatur palatium ut mundus illuminatur a sole. — Nulla fenestra nee 
aliquod foramen est ibi, ne claritas carbunculorum et aliorum lapidum claritate 
serenissimi caeli et solis aliquo modo possit obnubilari." Konrad von Megen- 
berg (1309-78), in his Book of Nature (ed. of F. Pfeiffer, p. 437), extols the 
carbuncle as the noblest of all stones, combining all their virtues. Its color is fiery, 
and it is even more brilliant at night than in the daytime; during the day it is dark, 
but at night it shines so brightly that night almost becomes day. This belief still 
prevailed in the seventeenth century, as may be gleaned from the following interest- 
ing passage of A. Boetius de Boot (Gemmarum et lapidum historia, p. 140, ed. of 
A. Toll, Lugduni Batavorum, 1636)- "Magna fama est carbunculi. Is vulgo 
putatur in tenebris carbonis instar lucere; fortassis quia pyropus, seu anthrax appel- 
latus a veteribus fuit. Verum hactenus nemo unquam vere asserere ausus fuit, se 
gemmam noctu lucentem vidisse. Garcias ab Horto proregis Indiae medicus refert 
se allocutum fuisse, qui se vidisse affirmarent. Sed iis fidem non habuit. Ludovicus 
Vartomannus regem Pegae tantae magnitudinis, et splendoris habere scribit, ut qui 
regem in tenebris conspicatus fuerit, eum splendere quasi a Sole illustretur existimet, 
sed nee ille vidit. Si itaque gemmam noctu lucentem natura producat, ea vere 
carbunculus fuerit, atque hoc modo ab aliis gemmis distinguetur, omnesque alias 
dignitate superabit. Multi autumant gemmas in tenebris lucentes, a natura gigni 
non posse; verum falluntur. Nam ut lignis putridis, nicedulis, halecumque squam- 
mis, et animalium oculis, natura lucem dare potest; non video cur gemmis idonea 
suppeditata materia (in tanta rerum creatarum abundantia) tribuere non possit. 
An itaque habeatur, aut non, incertum adhuc est. Doctissimorum tamen virorum 
omnium sententia huiusmodi gemmae non inveniuntur. Hinc fit quod rubentes, 
et transparentes gemmae omnes; ab iis carbunculi, anthraces, pyropi, et carbones 
nuncupentur. Quia videlicet carbonis instar lucent, ac ignis instar flammeos hinc 
inde radios iaciunt." 



62 The Diamond 

possibly to a certain extent ruby, 1 remain, while emerald must be 
discarded. 2 

In my opinion, the diamond should be added to the series. The 
Chinese, at least in modern times, use the epithet ye kuang (" brilliant 
at night") as a synonyme of the diamond. 3 This notion apparently 
goes back to an ancient tradition; for the Nan Yile chi (" Description 
of Southern China") 4 relates that the kingdom of Po-lo-ki &!£.£*. 

1 The pilgrim Huan Tsang (Ta T'ang si yii ki, Ch. n, p. 6; ed. of Shou shan ko 
ts*ung shu) narrates that beside the king's palace was the Buddha 's-Tooth Shrine, 
brightly decorated with jewels. From its roof rose a signal-post, on the top of 
which was a large ruby (padmaraga), which shed a brilliant light, and could be seen 
shining like a bright star day and night for a great distance (compare Waiters, 
On Yuan Chwang's Travels, Vol. II, p. 235; Beal, Buddhist Records, Vol. II, 
p. 248; the translation of Julien, Memoires sur les contrees occidentales, Vol. II, 
p. 32 — "recouvert d'un enduit brillant comme le diamant" — is incorrect, and 
the whole rendering of the passage is not exact). In view of what is set forth below 
regarding phosphorescence, it should be remarked right here that any natural phe- 
nomenon proceeding from the stone cannot come into question in this case. Moon 
and star light or artificial illumination of the building must be held responsible for 
the ruby being visible at night. Thus the causes leading to the conception of stones 
shining in darkness evidently are different. Also in the case of Lucian's lychnis 
in the temple of Hierapolis, I am not inclined to believe in a natural phenomenon, but 
rather in a miracle produced by priestly artifice, which supplied the source of light from 
a hidden corner, and hypnotized the multitude into the belief that it emanated from 
the stone. With reference to the above passage of Huan Tsang, it should be added 
that Cosmas Indicopleustes (Christian Topography, translated by McCrindle, p. 
365) mentions a gem in the possession of the King of Ceylon (Taprobane), "as large 
as a great pine-cone, fiery red, and when seen flashing from a distance, especially if the 
sun's rays are playing around it, being a matchless sight ;"but he does not tell of its 
shining at night. Friar Odoric of Pordenone of the fourteenth century ascribes a 
similar gem to the King of the Nicobars (Yule, Cathay, new ed., Vol. II, p. 169) : "He 
carrieth also in his hand a certain precious stone called a ruby, a good span in length 
and breadth, so that when he hath this stone in his hand it shows like a flame of fire. 
And this, it is said, is the most noble and valuable gem that existeth at this day in 
the world, and the great emperor of the Tartars of Cathay hath never been able to 
get it into his possession either by force or by money or by any device whatever." 

2 Beckmann (Beitrage zur Geschichte der Erfindungen, Vol. Ill, p. 553) tenta- 
tively included among the luminous stones of the ancients also fluor-spar; but, as 
admitted by himself, the phosphorescent property of this mineral was not recognized 
before the seventeenth century. Moreover, whatever may have been said to the 
contrary (Blumner, Technologie, Vol. Ill, p. 276; and Lenz, /. c, p. 23), it is ex- 
tremely doubtful to me whether the ancients were acquainted with fluor-spar. This 
supposition is not well founded on matter-of-fact evidence, but merely inferred from 
certain properties of the mineral which became known in our own time, and which 
were subsequently read into certain accounts of the ancients. — Other stones to which 
the property of nocturnal luminosity is ascribed are purely fabulous, as, for instance, 
the "stone attracting other stones," described by Philostratus as sparkling at night 
like fire (F. de Mely, Lapidaires grecs, pp. 27-28). 

3 J. Doolittle, Vocabulary and Handbook of the Chinese Language, Vol. I, p. 132. 

4 Written by Shen Huai-yuan of the fifth century (Bretschneider, Bot. Sin., 
pt. I, No. 559). The text is cited in T'ai pHng yii Ian, Ch. 813, p. 10. 



Phosphorescence of Precious Stones 63 

produces diamonds, the lustre of which illuminates the dark night. 
According to Chao Ju-kua, 1 the King of Ceylon possessed a gem five 
inches in diameter, which could not be consumed by fire, and at night 
emitted a brilliancy like a torch. As incombustibility was credited to 
the diamond, this jewel shining at night, in all probability, was a 
diamond. 2 Another reason why the diamond should be included in 
this class will be discussed in the following section. 

Phosphorescence of Precious Stones. — As this subject of stones 
"luminous at night" has heretofore not been properly comprehended 
by sinologues and others, it may not be amiss to add some explanatory 
notes. 3 As a matter of fact, of course, stones cannot shine at night: 
the lustre of any gem is an optical property, and depends upon the 
effects of light, solar or artificial, which is reflected back to the human 
eye. 4 The classical and Chinese reports of stones emitting rays of light 
in darkness, accordingly, have nothing to do with optical phenomena, 
or, in particular, with so-called " adamantine lustre." If these stories, 
partially, should refer to a phenomenon of reality, there is but one that 
can come into question, — that of phosphorescence. This is a property 
of some gems, which, after rubbing, heating, exposure to light, or an 
electrical discharge, radiate a light known as phosphorescence; since the 
glow, although often of different colors, resembles that of phosphorus. 
This property is particularly exhibited in the diamond, which, on being 
rubbed with a cloth or across the fibres of a piece of wood, gives out a 
light plainly visible in a dark room. It is, however, not a general 
property of all diamonds, but only efficient in certain stones. 5 Though 

1 Chufan chi (ed. Rockhill), Ch. a, p. 10; translation of Hirth and Rockhill, 
P- 73- 

2 An indirect testimony for the diamond being counted among the night-shining 
stones in the West may be deduced from the passage in the Physiologus, that the 
diamond is not found in the daytime, but only at night, which may imply, that, in 
order to be found at night, it must then emit light (compare F. Lauchert, Geschichte 
des Physiologus, p. 28; E. Peters, Der griechische Physiologus, p. 96; F. Hommel, 
Aethiopische tlbersetzung des Physiologus, p. 77; K. Ahrens, Buch der Naturgegen- 
stande, p. 82). — D'Herbelot (Bibliotheque orientale, Vol. IV, p. 398) already 
knew that it was a natural property of the diamond to shine in darkness. 

3 The subject in general has been dealt with by G. F. Kunz (Curious Lore of 
Precious Stones, pp. 161-175). 

4 The Chinese scholar Sung Lien (13 10-81) had a certain idea thereof. In a 
Dissertation on Sun, Moon, and Stars (Ji yiie wu sing luri) he speaks of a "gem like 
the full moon" {yiie man ju chu), whose substance, in principle, has no lustre; but 
it borrows its lustre from the sun, that half of it turned away from the sun being 
constantly dark, and the other half turned toward the sun being constantly bright 
(P'ei win yiinfu, Ch. 7A, p. 109). 

5 Compare Farrington, Gems and Gem Minerals, pp. 34, 70. Among all 
minerals, phosphorescence is best exhibited by fluorite, nearly all specimens of which, 



64 The Diamond 

occurring also in other precious stones, the phosphorescent light is most 
brilliant and intensified in the diamond; and for this reason it would 
seem plausible that the diamond should have held the foremost rank 
among the stones luminous at night. 

There remains, however, a grave obstacle in the way of this explana- 
tion, which must not be overlooked; and this is that the ancient authors 
who have written on precious stones are entirely reticent on the subject 
of their phosphorescent quality. It is indeed taught that this phe- 
nomenon was observed for the first time only by the physicist Robert 
Boyle in 1663. 1 This, of course, does not mean that it was entirely 
unknown before that time, and that it could not have revealed itself to 
a layman by a chance accident. 

M. Berthelot, 2 however, has discovered in the collection of Greek 
alchemists a small treatise propounding the processes "of coloring the 
artificial precious stones, emeralds, carbuncles, and hyacinths, after 
the book drawn from the sanctuary of the temple." He believes that 
artificial coloring of stones is said in this text to impart to them the 
property of phosphorescence, and that there is no doubt that the ancients 
made precious stones phosporescent in darkness through the employ- 
ment of superficial tinctures derived from substances such as bile of 
marine animals, the analogous properties of which are known to us. I 
must confess that this conclusion, though emanating from so high 
and respectable an authority, for whom I have a profound admiration, 
is not quite convincing to me. First, it seems open to doubt whether 
the Greek recipe really took the desired effect, as long as this is not 
experimentally established; second, if it did, it does not furnish proof 
that the ancients were acquainted with the phenomenon of the phos- 
phorescence of precious stones, as we understand it, which is a physical 
property inherent in the stone, while in the Greek text the phospho- 
rescence is alleged to result from animal products brought in contact 
with the stone, not from the stone itself. The text published by 
Berthelot, while it may tend to prove that certain ancient alchemists 
knew something about the phosphorescence of certain animal organs, is 
not at all apt to show that the same tendency in precious stones was 
familiar to them; on the contrary, it would be much more likely to have 

when gently heated, will emit a visible light. Its color varies with different varieties, 
and is usually not the same as the natural color of the mineral. The tints exhibited 
are usually greenish, bluish, or purplish. 

1 Bauer, Precious Stones, p. 138. 

2 Sur un proc6de antique pour rendre les pierres pr6cieuses et les vitrifications 
phosphorescentes {Annates de chimie et physique, 6th series, Vol. XIV, 1888, 
pp. 429-432); reprinted in his Introduction a l'etude de la chimie, pp. 271-274 
(Paris, 1889). 



Phosphorescence of Precious Stones 65 

been unknown to them, if that artificial process were ever really applied 
to stones. 

Also from India we receive an intimation as to alleged acquaintance 
with the fact of phosphorescence before Boyle. The learned Hindu 
Praphulla Chandra Ray, 1 professor of chemistry at the Presidency 
College, Calcutta, has this to say: "It is sometimes asserted that the 
phosphorescence of diamond was first observed in 1663 by the cele- 
brated Robert Boyle. Bhoja (eleventh century a.d.), however, men- 
tions this property." Fortunately for us, the Sanskrit text of this 
passage is added, which reads, "andhakare ca dlpyate" (translated 
by Ray, "it phosphoresces in the dark"); but these words simply 
t mean, "it shines in the dark." It is accordingly not the case of Bhoja 
being familiar with the phosphorescent property of the diamond, but 
the subjective case of Professor Ray, who knows of Boyle's discovery, 
and projects this knowledge into his author. It reflects more credit 
on the well-meant patriotism of the Hindu than on his power of logic. 
His interpretation being conceded, we could as well infer from the 
numerous passages of classical and Chinese authors, where precious 
stones luminous in the dark are spoken of, that also Greeks, Romans, 
and Chinese possessed an intimate acquaintance with the phenomenon 
in question. 2 But serious science cannot afford to speed its conclusions 
up to this rapid tempo; and if the fact remains that no Greek, Roman, 
Sanskrit, or Chinese text has as yet come to the fore, from which such 
an inference as to conscious knowledge of the phosphorescence of 
precious stones can reasonably and without violence be deducted, it is 
safer to hold judgment in abeyance or to regard the result as negative. 3 

1 A History of Hindu Chemistry, Vol. II, p. 40 (2d ed., Calcutta, 1909). 

2 It is noteworthy that neither the Arabic nor the Indian mineralogists have 
accounts of precious stones luminous at night. What the Arabs offer of this sort is 
an entirely different affair. The lapidarium of Pseudo- Aristotle mentions a fabulous 
stone under the name "strange stone," which is found in the dark ocean, has rays 
in its interior, and is visible at night, its veins being brilliant as though they were 
laughing faces (a corrupted reading which originally was "brilliant like a mirror;" 
J. Ruska, Steinbuch des Aristoteles, pp. 20, 167). The "stone bringing sleep" is 
red, and large pieces of it radiate at night a glow of fire, and in the daytime smoke 
emanates from it {ibid., p. 166). 

3 In the passage of the Orphica, "the diamond-like crystal, when placed on an 
altar, sent forth a flame without the aid of fire," Kunz (Curious Lore of Precious 
Stones, p. 163) believes he sees an indication that the phosphorescence of the dia- 
mond had already been noted before the second or third century of our era ; but the 
plain text does not bear out this far-fetched interpretation. The Greek author has 
in mind the well-known burning-lenses of crystal, described also by Pliny (see the 
writer's article on this subject in T'oung Pao, 1915, pp. 169-228), and compares their 
reflective power with that of the diamond; he says nothing further than that the 
lustre of the diamond vies with that of a crystal lens. There is no allusion to the 
fact that this happens in darkness, and consequently no reference to phosphorescence. 



66 The Diamond 

While direct evidence is lacking, an interesting observation may be 
based on Pliny, which, it seems to me, is conclusive to some degree; and 
this is the curious circumstance that Pliny is familiar with the magnetic 
or electrical property of just those gems which have the best claim to 
being identified with the stones luminous at night of the Chinese, — 
tourmaline and diamond. In regard to the former (lychnis) he states 
that these stones, when heated by the sun or rubbed by the fingers, 
will attract chaff and scraps of papyrus. 1 As to the diamond, he 
remarks that its hostility toward the magnet goes so far, that, when 
placed near it, it will not allow of its attracting iron; or if the magnet 
has already seized the iron, it will itself attract the metal and turn it 
away from the magnet. 2 The fact is correct that diamond becomes 
strongly electric on friction, so that it will pick up pieces of paper and 
other light substances, though it is not a conductor of electricity, differ- 
ing in this respect from graphite. 3 Whether the diamond, as asserted 
by Pliny, can check the attractive power of the magnet, seems to be a 
controversial point. Garcia ab Horto was the first to antagonize 
Pliny's allegation, on the ground of many experiments made by him. 4 
C. W. King 5 has the following observation: "This stone is highly 
electric, attracting light substances when heated by friction, and, as 
we have already noticed, 6 has the peculiarity of becoming phospho- 



1 Has sole excalfactas aut attritu digitprum paleas et chartarum fila ad se rapere 
(xxxvn, 29, § 103). 

2 Adamas dissidet cum magnete in tantum, ut iuxta positus ferrum non patiatur 
abstrahi aut, si admotus magnes adprehenderit, rapiat atque auferat (xxxvn, 15, 
§61). 

3 "All gems when rubbed upon cloth become, like glass, positively electrified. 
Gems differ, however, in the length of time during which they will retain an electrical 
charge. Thus tourmaline and topaz remain electric under favorable conditions for 
several hours; but diamond loses its electricity within half an hour" (Farrington, 
Gems and Gem Minerals, pp. 34, 70). The Arabs attribute to the garnet (bijddl) 
the power of attracting wood and straw (J. Ruska, Steinbuch des Aristoteles, p. 144). 
I do not believe with Ruska that this statement may be caused by confusing the 
garnet with amber. Though Vullers and Steingass, in their Persian Dictionaries, 
assign to the word bijddl or bejdd the meanings "garnet" and "amber," the latter 
interpretation is evidently suggested by the reference to the attractive power. 

4 Ne meno e il vero che tolga la virtu alia calamita di tirare il ferro; percioche 
ne ho fatto io molte volte esperienza, e l'ho trovata favola (Italian edition of 1582, 
p. 182). 

5 Antique Gems, p. 71. 

6 In the passage referred to (p. 27) King says that "the property of phospho- 
rescence is possessed by no other gem except the diamond, and this only retains it for 
a few minutes after having been exposed to a hot sun and then immediately carried 
into a dark room. This singular quality must often have attracted the notice of 
Orientals on entering their gloomy chambers after exposure to their blazing sun, and 
thus have afforded sufficient foundation to the wonderful tales built upon the simple 



Phosphorescence of Precious Stones 67 

rescent in the dark after long exposure to the sun. The ancients also 
ascribed magnetic powers to the diamond in even a greater degree than 
to the loadstone, so much so that they believed the latter was totally 
deprived of this quality in the presence of the diamond; but this notion 
is quite ungrounded. Their sole idea of magnetism was the property of 
attraction; therefore seeing that the diamond possessed this for light 
objects, the step to ascribing to it a superiority in this as in all other 
respects over the loadstone was an easy one for their lively imagina- 
tions." Ajasson, however, holds that if the diamond is placed in the 
magnetic line or current of the loadstone, it attracts iron equally with 
the loadstone, and consequently neutralizes the attractive power of 
v the loadstone in a considerable degree. 1 Be this as it may, Pliny, at 
any rate, was well informed on the electrical quality of the diamond; 
and if this experiment in the case of diamond and tourmaline was 
brought about by rubbing the stones, it is not impossible that in this 
manner also a phosphorescence was occasionally produced and ob- 
served. A few such observations may easily have given rise to fabulous 
exaggerations of stones illumining the night. 

Were phosphorescent phenomena known to the Chinese? First 
of all, they were known in that subconscious and elementary form in 
which we find such conceptions in the domain of our own folk-lore. 
The philosopher Huai-nan-tse of the second century B.C. says that old 
huai trees (Sophora japonica) produce fire, and that blood preserved for 
a long time produces a phenomenon called lin hf . 2 This word is 
justly assigned the meaning "flitting light" and "will-o'-the-wisp, as 
seen over battle-fields." It is defined in the ancient dictionary Shuo 
wen as proceeding from the dead bodies of soldiers and the blood of 
cattle and horses, popularly styled "fires of the departed souls." 3 
The philosopher Wang Ch'ung of the first century a.d. criticised this 
belief of his contemporaries as follows: "When a man has died on a 
battle-field, they say that his blood becomes a will-o'-the-wisp. The 
blood is the vital force of the living. The will-o'-the-wisp seen by 
people while walking at night has no human form; it is desultory and 

fact by their luxuriant imaginations." I am somewhat inclined toward the same 
opinion; but we should not lose sight of the fact that the phenomenon itself, as far as 
precious stones are concerned, is not described in any ancient record, while we may 
trust to the future that such will turn up some day in a Greek papyrus. As the 
matter stands at present, we have at the best a theory founded on circumstantial 
evidence deduced from the ancients' knowledge of the magnetic property of precious 
stones. 

1 Bostock and Riley, Natural History of Pliny, Vol. VI, p. 408. 

2 Quoted under this word in K'ang-hi's Dictionary. 

3 The text is cited in Couvreur's Dictionnaire chinois-francais, p. 496. 



68 The Diamond 

concentrated like a light. Though being the blood of a dead man, it 
does not resemble a human shape in form. How, then, could a man 
whose vital force is gone, still appear with a human body?" 1 At the 
present day, when the Chinese in a very creditable manner coined a 
nomenclature to render our scientific terminology, they chose this 
word lin (ignis fatuus) to express our term "phosphorescence." 2 This 
shows that they have a feeling that this phenomenon underlies the 
popular notions conveyed by their word. 3 

The Po wu chi by Chang Hua (232-300) 4 has the following interest- 
ing text, which shows also that the Chinese had a certain experience of 
electric phenomena : " On battle-fields the blood of fallen men and horses 
accumulates and is transformed into will-o'-the-wisps. These adhere 
to the soil and to plants like dewdrops, and generally are not visible. 
Wanderers sometimes strike against them, and they cling to their bodies, 
emitting light. On being wiped off, they are scattered around into 
numberless particles, which yield a crepitating sound, as though beans 
were being roasted. They thrive only in quiet places for any length of 
time, and may soon be extinguished. The people affected by them be- 
come perturbed, as though they were mentally unbalanced, and remain 
for some days in an erratic state of mind. At present when people 
comb their hair, or are engaged in dressing or undressing, sparks may 
be noticed along the line of the comb or the folds of the dress, also 
accompanied by a crepitating sound." 5 

We noticed above that the phosphorescing of certain organs of 
marine animals was known to Greek alchemists. The counterpart of 
this observation is found in Chinese accounts of the eyes of whales, 
especially those of female whales, making "moonlight pearls" (ming 

1 A. Forke, Lun-h&ng, pt. 1, p. 193. 

2 It appears from the Ku kin chu of Ts'uei Pao of the fourth century (Ch. b, 
p. 6b; ed. of Han Wei ts'ung shu) that the phosphorescence of the glow-worm or 
firefly was styled also lin and likewise ye kuang ("wild fire," or "fire of the wilder- 
ness"). 

3 Giles (No. 6717) assigns this significance also to the word Ian in the compound 
yii Ian ("phosphorescence of fishes"). 

4 Compare Notes on Turquois, p. 22. The passage is in Ch. 9, p. 2, of the 
Wu-ch'ang edition. 

5 Also in Japan it was believed that will-o'-the-wisps represent the souls of people 
(hence called hito-dama, "man's soul"), which are floating away over the eaves and 
roof as a transparent globe of impalpable essence (Aston, Shinto, p. 50; M. Revon, 
Le Shintoisme, pp. ill, 302). Interesting information on this subject relative to 
Japan is given by Geerts (Les produits de jla nature japonaise et chinoise, 
pp. 186-187). Compare also some notes of M. W. de Visser (The Dragon in China 
and Japan, pp. 213-214); and the same author's detailed study Fire and Ignes Fatui 
in China and Japan (Mitteilungen des Seminars fur oriental. Sprachen, Vol. XVII, 
pt. I, 1914, PP. 97-193)- 



Phosphorescence of Precious Stones 69 

yiie cku) ; l this was recorded by Ts'uei Pao in the middle of the fourth 
century. 2 The fact that this was not mere fancy, but that such whale- 
eye pearls were a product of actual use, is illustrated by the Moho, a 
Tungusian tribe of the Sungari, who sent these in the year 719 as tribute 
to the Chinese Court. 3 The fabulous work Shu i ki says that in the 
southern sea there is a pearl which is the pupil from the eye of a whale, 
and in which one may behold his reflection at night, whence it is called 
" brilliancy of the night" {ye kuang).* Varahamihira (a.d. 505-587), in 
his Brihat-Sarhhita (Ch. 81 , § 23) , speaks of a pearl coming from dolphins, 
resembling the eye of a fish, highly purifying, and of great worth. 5 

Fish-eyes seem to have been enlisted for this purpose in old Japan. 
The Annals of the Sui Dynasty 6 attribute to Japan a wishing-jewel 
{ju i pao cku, rendering of Sanskrit cintdmani) of dark color, as big as a 
fowl's egg, and radiating at night, said to be the pupil of a fish-eye. 7 

Of other substances of animal origin credited by the Chinese with 
the property of nocturnal luminosity may be mentioned rhinoceros-horn, 
discussed by the writer on a former occasion. 8 While at that time I 
referred the earliest conception of this matter to Ko Hung of the fourth 
century and to a work of the T'ang period, I am now in a position to 
trace it to an author of the third century a.d., Wan Chen, who wrote 
the work Nan chou i wu chi {" Account of Remarkable Objects in the 
Southern Provinces"). 9 This writer assumes the existence of a divine 
or spiritual rhinoceros, whose horn emits a dazzling splendor. The 
interesting point, however, is that it is just an ordinary horn when 
examined in the daytime, whereas in the darkness of night the single 
veins of the horn are effulgent like a torch. 10 In regard to exhibiting 
luminous properties at night, instances of the real pearl, which is likewise 

1 The same term as that ascribed to the Hellenistic Orient and identified above 
with the astrion of Pliny. 

2 The complete text is given by the writer in T'oung Pao, 19 13, p. 341. 

3 T'ang shu, Ch. 219, p. 6. 

4 P'ei win yiin fu, Ch. 7A, p. 107; or Ch. 22 a, p. 76b. This attribute again is 
identical with that conferred on the precious stone of the Hellenistic Orient. 

5 H. Kern, Verspreide Geschriften, p. 100 ('s-Gravenhage, 1914). 
8 Sui shu, Ch. 81, p. 7. 

7 In all probability this jewel was a Buddhist relic brought over to Japan from 
India. Reference has been made above (p. 22) to the Buddhist legend, according 
to which the cintdmani originates from the fabulous fish makara. The Chinese 
author Lu Tien (1 042-1 102), in his PH ya, expresses the view that the cintdmani is 
the pupil of the eye of a fish (Wu li siao shi, Ch. 7, p. 13). 

8 Chinese Clay Figures, pp. 138, 151. 

9 Bretschneider, Bot. Sin., pt. 1, Nos. 452, 539; and Sui shu, Ch. 33, p. 10. 

10 The passage is quoted in the cyclopaedia T'ai p'ing yu Ian (published by Li Fang 
in 983), Ch. 890, p. 3 (edition of Juan Yuan, 1812). 



70 The Diamond 

an animal product, have already been cited (p. 56). A few more cases 
may here be added. In a.d. 86 moonlight pearls as big as fowl's eggs, 
4.8 inches in circumference, were produced in Yu-chang and Hai-hun. 1 
In the work Kuang chi, by Kuo I-kung of the sixth century, 2 are dis- 
tinguished three kinds of pearl-like gems, — the gem mu-nan TKfli 
of yellow color, 3 the bright gem (wring chu ®R J^. ), and the large gem 

resplendent at night (ye kuang ta chu -$.& £*$l), all an inch in diame- 
ter, or two inches in circumference, the best qualities coming from 
Huang-chi; 4 these are perfectly round, and when placed on a plane 
do not stop rolling for a whole day. 5 



1 Both localities are situated in the prefecture of Nan-ch'ang, Kiang-si Province. 
This notice is given in the Ku kin chu of Ts'uei Pao (fourth century), cited in T'ai 
pHng yii Ian, Ch. 803, p. 6. 

2 Bretschneider, Bot. Sin., pt. 1, No. 376; and Pelliot, Bull, de V 'Ecole francaise , 
Vol. IV, p. 172. 

3 In another passage of the same work (cited in P'ei win yiinfu, Ch. 7A, p. 107; 
and T*ai pHng yu Ian, Ch. 809, p. 4 b) it is said that this gem of yellow hue originates 
in the eastern countries. In this case, the name for the gem is mo-nan -H-fJI, which 
appears to be a phonetic variant of mu-nan. The same form is found in the Ku kin 
chu (Ch. c, p. 5 b; ed. of Han Wei ts'ung shu), where shui &. nan is given as a syno- 
nyme, and where it is remarked that the stone is yellow and occurs in the coun- 
tries of the Eastern Barbarians. Aside from these indications placing the home of 
the stone vaguely in the East, we have other accounts that attribute it to the 
Hellenistic Orient. The Nan Yiie chi (by Shen Huai-yiian of the fifth century; 
quoted in P'ei win yiin fu, Ch. 7A, p. 102 b) states that mu-nan are pearls or beads 
of greenish color, produced by the saliva of a bird with golden wings, and that they 
are prized in the country of Ta Ts'in. The Hiian chung ki (T'ai P'ing yii Ian, I. c.) 
likewise informs us that Ta Ts'in is the place of production. The Annals of the T'ang 
Dynasty ascribe mu-nan to Fu-lin (Hirth, China and the Roman Orient, p. 59); 
and Ma Tuan-lin explains them as evolved from the coagulated saliva of a bird (ibid., 
p. 80), — doubtless the echo of a Western tradition. The Shi i ki tells of an auspi- 
cious bird living on the fabulous isle Ying-chou, and spitting manifold pearls when 
singing and moving its wings. An exact description of the stone mu-nan is not on 
record. The Pen ts'ao kang mu lists it among the precious stones of yellow color. 
Yang Shen (1488-1559) identifies it with the emerald (written by him tsie-ma-lu 
instead of tsie-mu-lu, see Notes on Turquois, p. 55). Fang I-chi, in his Wu li siao 
shi (Ch. 7, p. 14), proposes to regard it as the yellow yakut of the Arabs. These 
speculations are recent after-thoughts of doubtful value. 

4 Regarding the location of this country see Chinese Clay Figures, p. 80. 

6 T'u shu tsi ch'ing, chapter on pearls, hut k'ao, 1, p. 6 b. The latter statement 
reminds one of Pigafetta's account regarding the two pearls of the King of Brunei 
(west coast of Borneo), as large as hen's eggs, and so perfectly round that if placed 
on a smooth table they cannot be made to stand still (see Hirth and Rockhill, 
Chau Ju-kua, p. 159). — Li Shi-chen speaks of "thunder-beads" dropping from the 
5aws of a divine dragon and lighting an entire house at night (see Jade, p. 64). These 
are certainly not on a par with the other "prehistoric" implements enumerated by 
him in the same text, as believed by de Visser (The Dragon, p. 88), but this matter 
has crept in here by way of wrong analogy. These alleged thunder-beads are simply 
a transformation of the snake-pearls of Indian folk-lore. 



Phosphorescence of Precious Stones 71 

Also coral has been credited with the same property. The work 
Si king tsa ki ("Miscellaneous Records of the Western Capital," that is, 
Si-ngan fu) relates: "In the pond Tsi-ts'ui there are coral-trees twelve 
feet high. Each trunk produces three stems, which send forth 426 
branches. These had been presented by Chao T'o, King of Nan Yue 
(Annam), and were styled 'beacon-fire trees.' At night they emitted 
a brilliant light as though they would go up in flames." 1 

Whether in each of the instances cited the case rests on real observa- 
tion is difficult to decide. Some accounts may be purely fabulous or 
imaginary, and the luminous property may have freely been transposed 
from one substance to another. Taken all together, however, we cannot 
deny that certain phenomena of phosphorescence might to a certain 
degree have been* known to the ancient Chinese in some way or other, 
although the phenomenon itself was not intelligently understood. A 
recent author, Sung Ying-sing, who wrote in 1628 (2d ed., 1637) the 
T'ien kung k K ai wu, a treatise on technology, gives an interesting account 
of the pearl-fishery, and discredits the belief in night-shining pearls. 
He remarks, "The pearls styled 'moonlight and night-shining ' in times 
of old are those which, when viewed under the eaves in broad daylight 
on a sunny day, exhibit a fine thread of flashing light; it is uncertain, 
however, that the night-shining pearls are finest, for it is not true that 
there are pearls emitting light at the hour of the dusk or night." There 
is, however, no account on record to show that the Chinese ever under- 
stood how to render precious stones phosphorescent; and since this 
experiment is difficult, there is hardly reason to believe that they should 
ever have attempted it. Altogether we have to regard the traditions 
about gems luminous at night, not as the result of scientific effort, but 
as folk-lore connecting the Orient with the Occident, Chinese society 
with the Hellenistic world. 

1 T'ai p'ing yu Ian, Ch. 807, p. 5; or T'u shu tsi ch'ing, chapter on coral, ki shi, 
p. 1 (see also Pien i Hen 94, Annam, hui k x ao VI, p. 8 b, where this event is referred to 
the beginning of the Han dynasty). 



INDEX 



Adamantine gold, 38. 

Aelian, 59. 

Aetites, 9. 

Agastimata, 42, 48. 

Agathyrsi, diamond in country of, 53. 

Ajasson, 45, 67. 

Akfani, 27, 34, 41. 

Albertus Magnus, 24. 

Alexander, Romance of, 10, II, 14, 45, 

58- 

Almas, Arabic designation of the dia- 
mond, 32, 34, 42, 46. 

Ammianus, 53. 

Apollonius, on diamond, 24. 

Armenian version of legend of Diamond 
Valley, 14. 

Arthacastra, on diamond, 16, 48. 

Asbestos, 28, 33, 39, 40. 

Astrion, 57. 

Augustinus, 16, 24. 

Ausfeld, A., 10, 11, 45, 58. 

Ball, V., 15, 48. 

Bauer, M., 37, 47, 48, 49, 54, 64. 

Beckmann, J., 28, 47, 62. 

Benjamin of Tudela, 11. 

Berquen, L. van, alleged inventor of 

diamond-polishing, 49. 
Berthelot, M., 26, 61, 64. 
al-Berum, 41. 
Biot, E., 21. 
Biscia, A. R., 13, 27. 
Blumner, H., 24, 36, 44, 47, 53, 57, 62. 
Boll, F., 24. 
Boot de, 41, 61. 
Borneo, diamonds of, 54. 
Boutan, M. E., monograph on diamond, 

54- 
Boyle, R., 64, 65. 
Buddha, associated with the diamond, 

17, 25; diamond passed as his tooth, 30. 

California, diamonds of, 37. 

Callaina, 15. 

Cambodja, see Fu-nan. 

Carbuncle, in the legend of Diamond 
Valley, 14, note 2; 44, 60; luminous at 
night, 61 ; 64. 

Chalfant, F. H., on diamonds of Shan- 
tung, 5. 

Champa, diamond-rings from, 54. 

Chang Hua, 68. 

Ch'ang Te, 13. 

Chao Ju-kua, on diamonds of India, 22, 
54; 63. 



Chavannes, E., 8, 18, 22, 25, 30, 31, 33, 
39. 40, 56, 57, 58, 61. 

Chou K'ii-fei, 21. 

Chou Mi, 12, 42, 51. 

Cintamani, 22, 69. 

Conti, N.', 14. 

Coral, luminous at night, 71. 

Cosmas, 62. 

Crooke, W., 16, 41. 

Curtius, 23, 44. 

Cut diamonds, unknown in classical 
antiquity, India, and China, 46-50; 
imported into China from India and 
Europe, 6 note; introduced into 
India and China by Portuguese, 48, 
50. 

Dana, E. S., 43. 
Dante, 18. 

Diamond-point, 27, 28-35. 
Diamond-sand, from Tibet, 15; regarded 

as poisonous in India, 41. 
Diamond-Seat, of Buddha, 17, 18. 
Diamond throne, in Dante, 18. 
Diamonds, of Shan-tung, 5; of India, 16, 

44; in Iran, 53; of Java, 54; of Borneo, 

54- 
Dionysius Periegetes, 44, 53, 58. 
Dioscorides, 23, 26, 32, 44. 
Duval, R., 26. 

Eagle-stone, 9. 

Edrisl, 13. 

Electric phenomena, known to Chinese, 

68. 
Elysasus, legend of Diamond Valley by, 

14 note 2. 
Emerald, 57, 62, 64, 70. 
Emery, 12, 44, 50; of China, mentioned 

by Arabs, 51. 
Epiphanius, 9, 10, 15, 17, 18, 20, 21. 
Ethiopia, diamonds in, 45. 

Faber, E., 28, 29, 33. 

Fang I-chi, 12, 70. 

Farrington, O. C., 23, 37, 63. 

Fauvel, on Chinese diamonds, 5. 

Ferrand, G., 51. 

Finot, L., 16, 17, 22, 41, 42, 43, 44, 48, 

49. 
Fire, does not affect diamond, 23, 38. 
Fish-eyes, employed as pearls, 69. 
Fluor-spar, known to Chinese, 21, 36; 

not known to the ancients, 62. 
Forke, A., 29, 33, 60, 68. 



73 



74 



Index 



Foucher, A., 7, 17. 

Franke, 0., 7, 25. 

Fu-lin, 7, 8, 19, 70. 

Fu-nan, crystal mirror from, 19; dia- 
monds of, 21; diamonds from India 
imported into, 22, 45. 

Fu Yi, 30. 

Garbe, R., 23, 44, 49. 

Garcia ab Horto, 23, 48, 66. 

Garnet, 66. 

Geerts, 5, 21, 27, 51, 52. 

Geiger, W., 31. 

Girdle-ornaments, set with diamond, 40. 

Glass, not cut with diamond-points by- 
ancient Chinese or by Greeks and 
Romans, 28; used for diamond imi- 
tations in India, 41. 

Gold, associated with the diamond by 
the Chinese in consequence of classi- 
cal tradition, 35-38. 

Greek tales in China, 59, 60. 

Grube, W., 56. 

Guthe, J. M., 57. 

Hair-spangles, set with diamond, 40. 

Hanbury, D., 21. 

Heart, compared with diamond, 18. 

d'Herbelot, 57, 63. 

Herodotus, 15, 53, 57, 59. 

Hirth, F., 7, 8, 21, 29, 30, 33, 40, 55, 57, 

58, 60, 61, 70. 
Horapollo, 9. 

Hormuz, diamonds from, 54. 
Huai-nan-tse, 56, 60, 67. 
Huan chung ki, 25, 30, 32, 34, 53, 70. 
Hiian Tsang, on Diamond-Seat, 17; on 

ruby, 62. 
Huet, G., 20. 
Humboldt, A. von, 36. 
Hyacinth, 9, 14 note 4, 21, 41, 64. 

Ichneumon, 7 note 4. 

Imitation diamonds, 4.1-42. 

India, history of diamond in, 16-18; 
legend of Diamond Valley in, 19; 
diamonds from, imported into Roman 
Orient, Fu-nan, and Kiao-chi, 22, 45; 
eight sites where diamond was found, 
22 ; diamonds of, known to Chinese in 
third century, 35, 36; imitation dia- 
monds in, 41; diamonds of, known to 
the ancients, 44; diamond-rings from, 
54; astrion of, 57. 

Iran, diamond known in, 53. 

Iron, does not affect diamond, 21, 23; 
diamond turns into, 29; diamond- 
points enclosed in, 31; association of 
diamond with, 32. 

Isidorus, 16. 

Jade, wrought with diamond-points, 28, 
31. 



Java, diamond finger- rings from, 53 ; dag- 
gers and krisses set with diamonds in , 54 ; 
diamonds from, known to Chinese, 54. 

Keller, O., on eagle-stone, 9; on ram, 24. 

Kern, H., 7, 41, 69. 

Kiang Yen, 40. 

Kin-kang, has double meaning " thunder- 
bolt" and "diamond," 17; with the 
meaning "diamond," 21, 30, 35; ex- 
planation of the term, 37. 

King, C. W., 24, 66. 

Ko Hung, 21, 23, 36, 69. 

Kuang chi, 70. 

Kubera, 7. 

Kun-wu, 28-33; 38-40. 

K'ung-ts'ung-tse, 40. 

Kunz, G. F., 45, 63, 65. 

Kuo I-kung, 70. 

Lacouperie, T. de, 56, 61. 

Lauchert, F., 10, 23, 24, 26, 63. 

Lead, action of, on diamond, 26. 

Leclerc, L., 9, 26, 32. 

Lenz, H. O., 36, 45, 47, 62. 

Lessing, 47. 

Li Kuei, 35. 

Li Shi-cMn, 12, 25, 27, 28, 29, 40, 52, 70. 

Li Sun, 34. 

Liang se kung tse ki, 6, 14, 19, 20. 

Lie-tse, 28, 32, 36, 39. 

Lin-yi, diamoncL-rings from, 54. 

Lippmann, E. O. von, 24, 36, 43. 

Liu-sha, 29, 30. 

Load-stone, 28, 67. 

Lucian, 58. 

Lychnis, 58, 59, 66. 

Magnetism, of precious stones, 66-67. 

Makara, 22. 

Manicheans, 18. 

Manilius, 24, 43. 

Mansur, 26. 

Marbodus, 16, 50, 61. 

Marco Polo, n, 13, 18, 54. 

Marx, A., 59, 60. 

Megenberg, K. von, 32, 50, 61. 

M61y, F. de, 9, 24, 30, 31, 42, 59, 62. 

Milindapanha, 16, 17. 

Mo Ti, 56. 

Mu-nan, a gem, 70. 

Nan chou i wu chi, 34, 40, 69. 
Nan Yiie chi, 62, 70. 
Narahari, 49. 
Nizaml, 11. 

Odoric of Pordenone, 62. 
Orphica, 59, 65. 
Osborne, D., 43. 

Pannier, L., 24, 50, 61. 
Parturition stone, 9. 



OCT 12 m 



Index 



75 



Pearls, perforated with diamond-points, 
34; luminous at night, 55-57, 59-6°> 
70-71. 

Pelliot, P., on Fu-lin, 8; on Chou Mi, 
12; on kin-kang, 17; 18, 22, 30, 33, 
56, 70. 

Persia, diamond known in, under Sas- 
sanians, 53. 

Philostratus, 9, 59, 62. 

Phosphorescence, of precious stones, 
63-71; of animal organs, 19, 64, 69, 
70. 

Physiologus, 9, 23, 26, 45, 63. 

Pigmies, gems in country of, 55. 

Plato, possibly alluding to the diamond, 
36. 

Pliny, on eagle-stone, 9; on callaina, 
15; on testing of diamond, 23; on 

■ cenchros, 30; on diamond, 31, 36, 40, 
41, 42, 43-46; on astrion, 57; on 
lychnis, 58; on magnetic property of 
lychnis and diamond, 66. 

Po-lo-ki, diamonds from, 62. 

Porcelain, wrought with diamond-points, 
28. 

Portuguese, introduced diamond-cut- 
ting into India, 48; of Macao, intro- 
duced the Chinese to cut diamonds, 50. 

Prester John, letter of, 38, 61. 

Ptolemy, on diamonds of India, 44. 

Qazwinl, II, 13, 28, 37, 41. 

Ram's horn, in Chinese opinion, de- 
stroys diamond, 22; corresponds to 
ram's blood of the ancients, 23-26, 38. 

Ratnapariksha, 49. 

Ray, 65. 

Razi, 9. 

Rings, set with diamonds, 6, 34, 40, 53. 

Rock-crystal, properties of, ascribed 
to diamond, 31; served for imitation 
diamonds in India, 41; passed as dia- 
mond in Europe, 46. 

Rockhill, W. W., 54. 

Rohde, E., 11, 15. 

Ruby, 26, 32, 50, 60, 62. 

Ruska, J., 9, 10, 11, 12, 23, 31, 37, 41, 
51. 65. 

Scaliger, J. C, 14. 
Se-ma Piao, 39. 
Se-ma Siang-ju, 38. 
Se-ma Ts'ien, 56. 
Seal, of diamond, 33. 
Shamir, 12 note 1. 



Shan-tung, diamonds found in, 5 note 2. 

Shi chou ki, 29, 32. 

Si-wang-mu, 33. 

Sindbad, 11, 28. 

Smaragdos, 57, 58. 

Smith, F. P., 21, 29, 50. 

Sokeland, H., 49, 50. 

Solomon, 12, 33. 

Stalactites, 21. 

Strabo, 24, 44. 

Su Shi, 31. 

Sung Lien, 63. 

Sung Ying-sing, 71. 

Supparaka-jataka, 22. 

Susemihl, F., 60. 

Ta vernier, 48. 

Teeth of Buddha's statue, formed by 

diamonds, 31. 
Theophrastus, on parturient stones, 9; 

alludes to diamond, 24, 44; on ruby, 

60. 
Tifashi, 13, 27. 
Tourmaline, 58, 61. 
Ts'ao Chao, 15. 
Tsin k'i kii chu, 35. 
Tu Ku-t'ao, 27. 
Tu Wan, 21. 
Tu Yu, 55- 
Tun-huang, 35, 36. 
Tung-fang So, 29. 
Tzetzes, 14. 

Ural, diamonds of, 36, 37, 53. 

Vajra, 16, 53. 
Vajrasana, 17. 
Varahamihira, 17, 41, 69. 
Visser de, 68, 70. 

Wang Ch'ung, 67. 

Watt, G., 16. 

Whale-eyes, employed as pearls, 68, 69. 

Wiedemann, E., 27, 34, 41. 

Will-o'-the-wisp, 67, 68. 

Winnefeld, H., 25. 

Wishing-jewel, 22, 69. 

Wonders of India, Arabic book of, 11. 

Yang Sh6n, 70. 
Yu Huan, 56. 
Yuan Ch£n, 34. 
Yule, H., 15. 

Zachariae, T., 12. 
Zarncke, F., 14, 38, 61. 



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